Thursday, December 02, 2010

The culture of Fighting for Freedom

Lately, I have come to the stark reality of a part of the US culture that not everyone shares.

Mexicans have not fought for freedom or rights in the last 100 years. That's right in 1910 was the Revolution. We just celebrated it on November 20. Now I am not an expert on the history of Mexico but what I understand that just 100 years ago there was about 150 rich families that controlled everything and everyone in all of Mexico. Well there was a revolt and a revolution and that is how Mexico was changed from not being ruled by the rich and now supposedly it is more equal (I wouldn't bet my life on it) but at least 150 families are not controlling a country. We have "new" issues here like corruption of government and drug cartels, etc. But Mexico is only 200 years old.

Here is the crazy thing, the majority of the people in the country have no idea what it's like to fight for freedom or the defense of others.

I found this last month when a new friend asked me about the Army and the soldiers in the states. We honor the men and women that fight for our country. We miss them when they are gone and we understand what it's like to live in a world where our dads, brothers, sons may not make it home. It gives us pride but it gives us a worldview completely different from other countries.

We sing songs about it. We write stories about it. We even have shows about the lives of Army Wives. It is who we are. And I think it has made us less passive and more patriotic. Yes, there are many Americans that are in disagreement as to how much we get involved in the affairs of other countries but as a whole we are united to support our troops.

That is what makes these pictures precious to us.

Cause these people are real to us.

Think about how our lives would be different if we left this part out of our cultural makeup.

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