In memory of the dream

America

Say it out loud... America. How does it make you feel?

Friday night Kayla and I had the opportunity to attend the Momon Tabernacle Choir concert for pioneer day with guest singers Brian Stokes Mitchell and Linda Eder. For anyone who is familiar with both the Choir and Mitchell it is needless to say that the performance was spectacular. The performance was dedicated to honoring those who have served and are currently serving in the armed forces. These brilliant singers honored those who have fought to defend the freedom of our country with thier vocal talents.

I lack the stunning voice to pay tribute in song, hoever I hope to share my feelings of gratitude through written word.

As I sat enjoying the concert my heart was filled with thanks for the brave men and women who have fought and died to make this country free. Before Linda Eder began to sing she shared about her own gratitude for freedom. She said that we need to realize that freedom is not free, but is paid for with the blood and sweat of brave defenders.

Kayla and I are closing on our house this week, a place that will be our very own, that we will be able to do whatever we want in.

 We attended church this morning. We work where we chose. I go to school where I want and learn what I want. We do with our time and money whatever we choose. We can go where we want and live where we want. We are free.



In Salt Lake City, there is a beautiful park at the mouth of a canyon. It is called Memory Grove and is a beautiful, quiet place where there are several monuments to those from Utah who served their country in combat. It is to these brave ones I owe my gratitude for the freedom I and my family enjoy. I sit in this quiet place and contemplate those who, on a raging battle field full of the sounds of mortars, and bullets and dying men gave all to ensure that their home and their families and their children would be safe, that they would be free.

In our country we have a hard time with heros. Everyone has a bad side, everyone has the skeletons in their closet. All are criticized no matter how noble. Even our founding fathers are belittled by a cynical new generation insistent on marking all their flaws and questioning their motives. Many of those men and women who fought and died were not prim and proper, and perfect. Many were rough and surly. And yet, are they not heros? I believe that they are. That a true hero is known only when tested. Those heros who protected and still protect our freedom have passed the test. In defense of this land, and all the liberties we enjoy here, their mettle shone true, and for me they will forever be true heros. For, although not in every way, in at least one, they have followed that truest hero of all, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the world. He who has truly made us all free from sin, which action required the greatest anguish and pain which any has ever felt, and in the end his life.

So, as we all celebrate this day, even this whole month of July in which we are reminded by our holidays of our great blessing of freedom, let us remember those that have fought and those who have fallen. And let us strive to keep the peace for which they have sacrificed. As a line from the final line fo the concert so aptly states "let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me"