My question for you this weekend is this. Would you give your life for your country? It likely separates out many of our countrymen who wouldn’t die for anything. Just ask them that same question. I think you’ll find it shuts down a lot of conversations.
If you hear someone answering quickly in the affirmative, with bravado, know this. He or she didn’t arrive at that answer quickly and if there’s some bluster in his voice, he probably hasn’t considered his answer very carefully.
When I was a young officer commanding a squadron of cadets at the Air Force Academy, I challenged my seniors at graduation with this very question. Here they were about to become Second Lieutenants and I knew that many of them did not want to even approach that subject. I understood that response, because it wasn’t until years later that I could answer for myself. I graduated from that same Academy and spent another year-plus in pilot training “cheating death” as my instructors often put it. Flying is most unforgiving of any temporary lapse in judgment or momentary loss of attention.
Years later, I realized that though I may be dying for my country, my last conscious thoughts would be of my family and my wife, and my next one would be of my God and His Son. My family, a microcosm of families across this country, was worth it. That settled the issue for me.
Thankfully, I am still here to pose the question to you. Americans have been figuring it out for themselves and answering that question for centuries. That’s why we have a Veterans Day. Make it a good one.