Enjoy the day, go for a ride, think about freedom and independence.

My heartfelt thanks go out to all of those currently serving in our armed forces around the world, protecting what is so precious. You are appreciated far more than you know.

Thanks, too, to all of us who have served in the past. I believe there is an obligation for each generation to support and protect the freedom it has been given, won at great cost to those who came before. It’s a great irony that those who pay the most for freedom, no longer live to enjoy it and those who receive this costly gift often take it for granted as though it naturally exists. What is natural is for the powerful and weak to become masters and slaves. Freedom is an idea.

While we are engaged in what some say is becoming an unpopular war, we must remember that war is never popular for long, too many die and the reasons for the war are quickly forgotten in the midst of personal sorrow and tragedy. But, though war may not be popular, it is sometimes necessary to fight for and defend that idea of freedom, making it real in the face of those who would rather it not exist at all. To repeat a line that has become a cliche but is nonetheless true, “Freedom isn’t free.”

Thank You

Paul Crowe
“The Kneeslider”