Stand for America

I am to my very core an American. I believe in the ideals and beliefs that this country was built upon. Yet every day I am hearing things that many of the people who call themselves American, are saying. I hate the very idea of war. I also hate the idea of living in fear and losing the freedoms that thousands have died to protect. I also hate sending money to the power company every month, but I have to or I won't enjoy the convenience of lights and heat. If we don't stand strong now, we will become weak in the eyes of the world, and we will lose everything being an American stands for.

Where is your pride? Your dignity? How soon we forget 9/11. A kindergarten teacher is on the news now. Wearing a button to school that says, "Not my president, not my war.'' If he is not your president and it is not your war, then you must not be an American. There are many children in school right now who are suffering a great loss. Mommy or Daddy has gone off to fight to keep their freedoms. They may not see them for six months, a year, two years, or ever again. But they should always be allowed to know that the sacrifice they made (the child and the parent), was for the right. When you tell these children war is wrong, you take away the dignity of the child and of the brave parent who is over there fighting for you.

You would not have the right to protest if that right had not been fought for by the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives and some, their sanity. No father or mother should have to come home to have their child look at them with eyes that say they have lost their faith in them. Pray that they do come home whole and strong, that their child will be able to say thank you for caring enough to make America a safe place to live again.

For the ones who will not return, let them have the dignity of having given their lives for a country that was proud of them. Teachers are such a force in a child's life, that if they tell a child war is wrong the child will feel that they should be ashamed.

You do have the right to protest. But please have the wisdom to do it in the right place at the right time. I also have the right to say I may not like it, but I will stand behind our leaders and our soldiers. I will hold them in my prayers and my heart, and if you have a family member who is going or already gone, know that God goes with them.

Cynthia Sturgill