Nothing good, lasting, or worth it is easy or void of pain.

A great kiing offered two choices to those sentenced to death: noose or what was behind a big metal door. Almost everyone chose the noose. What was behind the door? Unknown? People were scared of the unknown and the things their mind put behind the door instead of risking the unknown.

Funny, freedom was behind the door.

It's truly their loss. I AM IN THE COMPANY OF GREAT MEN.

I used to give my shirt to a girl if she was cold and thought that was special. Everyone here has given me and ALL OF YOU their lives. We get nothing from this except shoddy pay and a few more medals. Ooooooh.

A bumpersticker reads "my kid fought in Iraq so yours can party in college." There are no kids here.

America throws celebrities in front of all of us and we worship them. Ben Stein touched on it in his final column that ended last month. Millions of dollars to memorize lines and look good on screen. Heralded for pretending to be this or that.

Now think about those that don't pretend. The nineteen year old sniper searching for the one responsible for killing marines. In the dirt, no trailer to retreat to. MRE's, no catered food. The ten that fell last week tht aren't coming back in the next damn movie. We don't forget celebrities names, but name one service member that has returned that left an arm, leg or sanity here.

Now is the part where I ask you to do something.

Next time you want to see a movie, take the money and make memory. Here are some popular movie types and ideas.

Romance - take the general plot, and the person you love and make your own movie, up on lovers lane, on a hike, drive, trip, make dinner

Action- take a class on rock climbing, paintball, dancing, exercise, race a car.

Sports- hell take your kids, your siblings kids, your kids kids, even big brothers big sisters, AND PLAY AGAIN

and you getting the idea

Go to the VA and take a service member out of the really long lines and out to lunch and get a real story. Or a nursing home. Then Pass the stories on.

"But I don't have (insert excuse here)." you say?

Incentives:

1. your kids, loved ones, friends would probably remember it and retell it more often than a movie plot.

2. Tom Cruise don't need the money. Elvis went to war. Name a celeb. now with the guts. Are you at a loss?? Me too.

3. You may meet some great people and talk.

4. DVDs last forever. The person you love doesn't.

About number 2. You may say well this person or that person visited a war zone or stood up for what they thought ws right.

I hope my emails convey that one can't know or think to know by visiting, reading or watching. Knowing is doing. Those who visit see service members pain, and get a candy coated tour of war, and they form opinons, that are like assholes, we all have em and they all stink.

Talk to those that do it and you get a different story. That get up every morning and grab a rifle and say "not today, no one dies today."

That don't need the fancy restaurants, the millions of dollars, the next catch phrase.

All he needs is coffee, some food that maybe tastes better than yesterday but probably doesn't, enough money for a magazine or haircut, and the greatest catch phrase ever...

I love you

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