Happy Birthday to me!

I don't know where all of that time went. I have an increasing appreciation for Bob Segers' "Like A Rock".I still feel like I'm 25 or so, but that can't be because my oldest daughter is 24.Life is good. When I was 16 I was convinced that I would meet with some tragic early death and never see 18. So every year after that has been a gift.

Stood there boldly
Sweatin’ in the sun
Felt like a million
Felt like number one
The height of summer
I’d never felt that strong
Like a rock

I was eighteen
Didn’t have a care
Working for peanuts
Not a dime to spare
But I was lean and
Solid everywhere
Like a rock

My hands were steady
My eyes were clear and bright
My walk had purpose
My steps were quick and light
And I held firmly
To what I felt was right
Like a rock

Like a rock, I was strong as I could be
Like a rock, nothin’ ever got to me
Like a rock, I was something to see
Like a rock

And I stood arrow straight
Unencumbered by the weight
Of all these hustlers and their schemes
I stood proud, I stood tall
High above it all
I still believed in my dreams

Thirty years now
Where’d they go?
Thirty years
I don’t know
Sit and I wonder sometimes
Where they’ve gone

And sometimes late at night
When I’m bathed in the firelight
The moon comes callin’ a ghostly white
And I recall
Recall

Like a rock. standin’ arrow straight
Like a rock, chargin’ from the gate
Like a rock, carryin’ the weight
Like a rock

Lihe a rock, the sun upon my skin
Like a rock, hard against the wind
Like a rock, I see myself again
Like a rock
Bob Seger

Differences

A Marine from our town was buried today…He was 25 years old. The same age as my daughter and her friends…He wanted to be a policeman.

There were several thousands of people at the service. The funeral procession went on for miles. It included relatives, friends, acquaintances, representatives of every branch of the armed services, politicians, dignitaries, representatives from at least 50 police departments, two motorcycle clubs, and hundreds of people who never met this young man; they just wanted to pay their respects and say thank you and goodbye to a hero.

As a Reserve Police Officer, I had the honor of playing a small role in this dramatic farewell. I worked all night then spent a long hot morning assisting with traffic and security. It was the least I could do.

Two things occurred to me;
First, as more of our son’s and daughter’s come home in boxes, there will be less and less attention…
Second, if the people who hate the U.S. so much were right about us, we would have approached the terrorism situation much differently… Instead of sending our son’s and daughter’s as liberators, we would have sent our bombers until the mid-east were nothing but ashes. Then we would have sealed our borders, and deported, imprisoned, or executed anyone who matched the profile of our enemies.

We don’t think that way however. As a country we never enter war as conquerors but as defenders and liberators. As citizens, despite our differing political views we support our troops as they defend the principals of freedom, wherever they are sent.

And unlike the terrorists who embrace and welcome death…we value life, and we mourn.

Bitten again.

Integrity, honesty, and loyalty. Three attributes that everyone should appreciate in their friends, relatives, and business acquaintances. Why is it, that despite my committment to these qualities, I keep getting bitten on the ass?