A Night to Remember - 4th of July

     Every year at this time families and friends gather together to celebrate the 4th of July, Independence Day. This is the day of recognition that our country, it's brave soldiers, offered their lives in order to live free from tyranny. At this moment, I'm not talking about he soldiers who are fighting in the middle east, but more so, the founding soldiers that lay their weak and dieing bodies at the foot of the pole that held the U.S. flag in place. As many cannon balls passed through the night air to injure our soldiers, they too, ripped through the American flag.
     As the night wore on and more soldiers died, the pole that held our flag was heavily damaged. There came a point that if the flag were to touch the ground, it would surely mean victory to England. Riddled with shrapnel and other sharp fragments in their bodies, soldiers one by one, who knew they were about to die, walked out to the flagpole and lay at its base. As more soldiers were dieing, the base grew larger and larger; at all costs, the flag would not fall.
     Today, the reason the flag is not allowed to touch the ground when being removed from its post, is in direct relation to those soldiers who died to make sure we as a country would survive.
     I remember a point in my life, the age of 12, when I stopped buying fireworks and decided to start watching the fireworks. Each year, as I see the bursts of bright lights in celebration, I stop for a moment and thank those soldiers long gone. With each loud bang I'm instantly taken to the moment that the battle raged around them and their brothers in arms were giving everything they had, which meant, their very last breath and final beat of their heart.
     Were they to be alive today, I often wonder if those soldiers would feel regret and shame of the country and its position of the day. I don't like to be the nay-sayer, but our flag is falling because, as my last post suggests, we forgot what it means to want to win, to be free. 
     So when you see those bombs bursting in air, stop for a moment to think about that very night and the single pole with dieing American men who believed they could win, at all cost...their very lives.
     If you get the chance, and you are spending the holidays with friends and family, adults and children, then take a moment to share with them what took place that night and ask them what it means to them to be an American.