NO, FREEDOM ISN'T FREE

I watched the flag pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease 

I looked at him in uniform 

So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He stood out in the crowd

I thought how many men like he
Had fallen through the years. 
How many died on foreign soil
Evoking mothers' tears


How many pilots' planes shot down
How many died at sea
How foxholes were some soldiers' graves
No, freedom isn't free


I heard the sound of "Taps" one night
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill. 


I wondered just how many times 
That "Taps" had meant 'Amen'
When a flag had draped the coffin
Of a brother or a friend.   


I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
Now with interrupted lives 


I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington
No, freedom isn't free. 


Enjoy Your Freedoms - ALL of them on this blessed day of celebrating freedom
Just as our salvation, they were bought with a price!!!
We may be struggling as a nation, but we are STILL the greatest nation in the world!
God Bless Our Troops Everywhere!!!