The Statue of Liberty is too cliché.
We've taken a million pictures in a week, and the Lincoln Memorial looks as though
It might crack.
To me, it means marble and stone carved intricately to absorb the heat of the moment
But to them, it's freedom.

To every soldier deployed, afraid and ready to put your life on the line
You are Jesus to us; sacrifices were His forte.
You are mother, father, brother, sister, cousin, ex-girlfriend, ex-boyfriend,
Stranger, yet family at the same time. How that works, I am unsure.
But God has a plan for those who bring you down. Who push you toward the edge.
THEY will not HURT YOU ANYMORE.

I was taught to look both ways before I crossed the street to avoid being hit by cars.
So was he.

He was 22 years old, leaving for the first time when his two year old ran to him with her Pudgy little belly, and her chubby little face so serious.
She took his face in her hands and told him never to cross the street
Without looking both ways and holding mommy's hand so he wouldn't get hurt.
And in that baby's arms he cried like a soldier, kissed his daughter goodbye
And caught the wing tip of the crashing plane in his teeth
Before it exploded in an angry gulf of flames.

He knew about cars.
But nobody told him about the bombs.

Someone should have told him about the bombs.

Because now they're dressed in their Sunday best.
She's looking in the crowd for him but his happy smiling clean-shaven face is nowhere.
She assumes it's because Daddy missed church again,
But someone is carrying this big wooden box with Daddy's favorite flag folded,
And she can't wait to tell him when he gets back that she saw this.



So this is America.

There isn't a sound in the cemetery but that baby's wail when the 21 gun salute proceeds.
She understands now why Daddy's picture is on that big wooden box.
Momma says "Daddy isn't coming home,
So tell him now.
Tell him now that you can count to 30,
And sing your ABC's backward.
Tell him we've gone to see the Statue of Liberty
And the big chair with Mr. 16th President in it.
Tell him how big you've grown
That you've been eating your vegetables without momma asking you to."

Tell God that every time those guns fire,
A million hearts break all over the country.
Tell Him that His merciless wrath would now be appreciated against those who see this as a GAME of hopscotch around the land mines.
Tell God that our children need raising!!
In a time when debt is rising higher than the Empire State Building,
How do we measure the value and importance of family anymore?!
Do the cries of "LET FREEDOM RING" sound like music to your ears???
When we belt out "IN THE LAND OF THE FREE AND THE HOME OF THE BRAVE",
TELL ME!

Why do you allow us to bring our families up on that lie?

Why isn't he coming back?

At 22 years old, she opens the letter her father sent her his first week away from home:
"Baby make sure you look both ways before you cross the street.
Hold your mother’s hand and think of me often.
I promise I’ll be home soon."

So this is America.