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To Veterans on this Veteran's Day

I apologize for the delay in wishing you all a happy and thankful Veterans Day today. Those of you who read this blog even at the most random moments already sense, I'm sure, that the courageous and committed warriors of this country have my respect, admiration, and thanks on a daily basis. I'm grateful for the warriors of all free countries who willingly fight the good fight on behalf of all mankind. It is you courageous individuals who ensure that history will always contain stories of freedom, stories of goodness and compassion, and stories of human exceptionalism.

For our warriors who may be out in the field this very evening protecting freedom and helping ensure the freedom of others as well as those, like my Dad, who stood courageously in harm's way in previous conflicts, please know that you are truly heroes. Heroes are not found among the celebrities -- the athletes, the actors, the artists, the rock stars -- they are found among the common man with uncommon strength of character who holds ideals worth fighting for. You are the truest of heroes and you are all stars in the heaven of freedom for every good and decent human being. You do it not just for this country and its people but for the many people who struggle to be free around the globe. Without you standing ready to defend the freedom of the world's people, this would be a very dark work indeed.

Rush Limbaugh provided some great food for thought this afternoon with respect to what it means to be courageous. He quoted from G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy. It is not only true but it is poignant. I've reprinted here the paragraphs he read today for those of you who missed it:

"...Paganism declared that virtue was in a balance; Christianity declared it was in a conflict: the collision of two passions apparently opposite. Of course they were not really inconsistent; but they were such that it was hard to hold simultaneously. Let us follow for a moment the clue of the martyr and the suicide; and take the case of courage. No quality has ever so much addled the brains and tangled the definitions of merely rational sages. Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. "He that will lose his life, the same shall save it," is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors or mountaineers. It might be printed in an Alpine guide or a drill book. This paradox is the whole principle of courage; even of quite earthly or quite brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice.

He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine. No philosopher, I fancy, has ever expressed this romantic riddle with adequate lucidity, and I certainly have not done so. But Christianity has done more: it has marked the limits of it in the awful graves of the suicide and the hero, showing the distance between him who dies for the sake of living and him who dies for the sake of dying. And it has held up ever since above the European lances the banner of the mystery of chivalry: the Christian courage, which is a disdain of death; not the Chinese courage, which is a disdain of life. ..."

Thanks for helping us understand the true meaning of courage, Veterans. Please stay safe and stay strong. Most of all, wherever you go, whatever you do, know that you are valued, appreciated, and thanked by those of us who understand what it means to be free. Thank you for your courage, your commitment, and your service. Happy Veterans Day!

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