JohnnyM's Blog

I find it hard to disagree with anything that you say here. While I support Cindy Sheehan's right to free speech, I do not agree with the content of her speech. That's alright though; I swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States and that promise did not end when I finished my military service. I feel sorry for Ms. Sheehan because she lost her son and I would be devastated if I lost mine, but I will not be buying her book. Instead of reading her book, I prefer to reread the writings of one of our greatest and most controversial presidents, Abraham Lincoln. He spoke often of compassion and no more so than in his March 4 1865 inaugural address: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan…”
It is my hope that all of us now, in 2006, can contemplate such compassion and act accordingly. It is in our daily lives, in our smallest gestures, smiles and acts of generosity that the true nature of America resides. It is within all of us to leave the world a little better than when we found it. Let us not forget those who have given their hopes, their dreams and their very lives to afford us all the opportunity of each new day as free Americans.

Daniel