Land of the Free

Tonight I am thankful for freedom.  I won't pretend to understand and realize all the many ways that freedom makes my life what it is, for I have been blessed enough to be born and raised in a land where freedom there when I wake up in the morning and still there when I go to sleep at night.  I have no idea what life would be like in a place where I wasn't granted freedom to live my life the way I wanted to.  I am thankful tonight for the men and women who, for the centuries since this country was established, have fought to keep that freedom alive and continue to put their lives on the line for all of us here at home.  Soldiers go, time after time, into dangerous, unknown lands to defend our freedom and our homeland against dangerous opponents, and I cannot thank those courageous, self-sacrificing souls enough for their commitment to this country and all that it stands for.