This week I saw a post on LinkedIn shared by John B. Richardson IV, Major General in the U.S. Army, with a simple statement, "Lest we forget." He was sharing Dan Wilkinson's post that included the following message and a video (the video link is at the end of this blog).
"This is so powerful. For 11 months of the year, our Armed Forces get very little recognition. Yet generations of them have put their lives on the line for their country. Remembrance Day will be in the past soon. Poppies will be thrown away and our Servicemen and women will be forgotten again. But they continue to serve their country 365 days a year. All they ask is that when they leave, they receive recognition for their service."
I was shocked to see there were no comments, so I wrote this one.
"My sincere thanks to you and all who have served and are serving. I thought of you all as I got lucky and captured this photo recently. I loved the symbolism with the flag, water, lifeboats and rainbow. To me, it represents that without your protection, we could easily “drown” (water), but you provide our lifeboat (safety), so we all get to enjoy the rainbow (life) and freedom (flag). Unfortunately, we civilians forget on a daily basis, or more likely are too scared to really think about it, and we take for granted the sacrifices we honestly know very little about. Thank you for sharing this video as it’s the kind of reminder we need on a regular basis to count our blessings, remember those who have served in the past, and take time right now to stop and thank those who serve today every chance we get.❤️🤍💙"
I wanted to share this because as an American I think it can be so easy to take our freedoms for granted. For many of us, we haven't experienced anything different so it's hard for anything else to truly "feel" real to us or for us to truly imagine how it would feel to have these freedoms taken away. And most of all, it's scary to even think about that as a possibility and it's even scarier to think about how it would feel to have a mother or father, son or daughter, husband or wife who we were separated from during training or deployments or who might die protecting these freedoms, so it's natural for our brains to avoid those thoughts.
But every time we allow our brains to push away those thoughts, we push away the opportunity to reach out and connect with someone who is serving today or a family member of someone who has died defending these freedoms. The Servicemen and women may not ask for or expect recognition for their service until after they leave, but they deserve it each and every day. And we would benefit as human beings by being brave enough to say something like, "I can't do what you do, but I sure am grateful you are willing to. I appreciate your sacrifice and thank you for your service."
Don't look away...pause, reflect and remember. Lest we forget.
Comments