Dear Vietnam Veterans:
We know we’ll never see what you see in your memories or feel how you feel in your dreams, and we’ll never really realize the fear and sadness you felt, the time taken from you to serve, and the loneliness you endured upon your return.
We don’t know war; its sights and smells and its sounds; but we do grasp freedom, and we know how it’s ours to respect and appreciate, or to take for granted as far too many do daily. We love to wave Our Flag and sing Our Song, but a very small percentage of America has ever been muddied by the ugliness of liberation.
That’s why, when we have visited The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., or The Wall That Heals that has stood tall this week at the Belmont County Fairgrounds, many of us may have respectfully recognized some of the names etched in tribute, but they weren’t our comrades in combat and we’ve never known their smiles and their stories about back home.
What we have learned, though, is that there is a cost of war because freedom has never been free, and those 58,281 names on those panels – those lives, souls, dreams, loves, and passions – are evidence of the ultimate sacrifices offered up for our lives and our loves.
Our reverence is real, ladies and gentlemen, and we pray you can feel it.
Sincerely,
From Sea to Shining Sea
