The following was sent to me and I thought it warranted to be passed on.<br /><br />I want you to close your eyes and picture in your mind the soldier at Valley Forge, as he holds his musket in his bloody hands. he stands barefoot in the snow, starved from lack of food, wounded from months of battle and emotionally scarred from the eternity away from his family surrounded by nothing but death and carnage of war.<br /><br />He stands though, with fire in his eyes and victory on his breath. He looks at us now in anger and disgust and tells us this...<br /><br />"I gave you a birthright of freedom born in the Constitution and now your children graduate too illiterate to read it. I fought in the snow barefooted to give you the freedom to vote and you stay at home because it rains. I left my family destitute to give you the freedom of speech and you remain silent on critical issues, because it might be bad for business. I orphaned my children to give you a goverment to serve you and it has stolen democracy from the people. It's the soldier not the reporter who gives you the freedom of the press. It's the soldier not the poet who gives you freedom of speech. It's the soldier not the campus organizer who allows you to demonstrate. It's the soldier who salutes the fag, serves the flag, whose coffin is draped with flag that allows the protestor to burn the flag!"<br /><br />Lord hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect them as they protect us. Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they preform for us in our time of need. I ask this in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.