The blood of freedom

A lot has been in the news recently about freedom, civil rights and equality. I tend to stay away from a lot of those volatile topics just because words can be bent or misused and turn a civil conversation into a riotous movement. But there are some topics from which I will never shy away, and I will jump in with both feet and swinging. God, America and veterans are three of those topics, and I was reminded of them last Friday at the assembly at Lake Roosevelt.

I always get emotional at the Veterans Day assembly. I just can’t help it. But this year I was starting to become undone. Yes, my wife is a veteran and many in my family have fought for our great nation and for the freedom of other nations, but there was more to it this year.

Maybe part of it was because I believe we should stand for the national anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance, and as I saw these veterans stand and salute, I could not help but think of the students that have the right not to. I could not help but think of the multi-millionaire football players who are paid to play a game that also have the right not to stand up.

I also thought of protesters. The ones that have every right to gather peacefully and protest what they don’t like. The ones who feel they must voice their opinion, much like I am doing here, to make their cause known.

But what gives the student, the athlete and the protester the right to do these things? Well, it was the very people we were honoring on this day, and every day we should be: the veterans.

People like Fred Long, Elmer Rinard and Josephine Ayers, the three WWII veterans in our midst that day. They stood. They stood many times over the course of the assembly. Just like they stood so many years ago doing what they were called to do for our country. To maintain our freedom.

I also thought of this generation of military heroes. Casey Cleveland, Dylan Stienert and Orrin Gross, all serving as we speak for those same freedoms. Taking up the cause that has been enacted since our country was established. To fight for what is right, to fight for freedom.

So while we debate and state our case for civil rights and equality and we refuse to stand or recite an anthem, all for the sake of civil liberties and how we feel, well, they continue fighting for that very freedom. They continue to stand at 90-plus years of age, and all the other vets stand with them. I stand with them and, yes, I get a little emotional as I do.

Every time I hear “The Star-Spangled Banner,” I think of those who bled and lost their lives for my freedom. I also will see my former teacher, Mr. Ayers, helping his mother stand for that song as well. Because she knew she had to. Not out of respect or duty, but because she fought under those very colors for this very right. She stands because she does not stand alone. She stands for the ones who did not come home to enjoy such an honor, many years after the fact. She stands for that very freedom that bleeds in red, in white and in blue. I stand for those same things as well. We all should.