THE SUMMER SOLDIER AND THE SUNSHINE PATRIOT

First and foremost I'm just an "Ole Country Boy." I'm not trying to sound smart. God knows I'm not! It's just that we ole country boys like to speak our peace and get to the bottom line. I love to smell the aroma of new mown hay and the summer rain and walk barefooted down an old country road. I love to gather with the whole family on a Sunday afternoon and enjoy those mouthwatering chicken and dumplings grand mother is famous for and a big slice of my mothers warm apple pie. I think probably the folks in our country around the time of Americas war for independence felt about the way I do. You know, they too were all old country boys. Those ole boys really knew what they had. They had a chance for freedom and they were not about to lose that chance. Of course at that time, Britain was about their only stumbling block to freedom. We all know the ole country boys got their blood and guts together and removed that stumbling block. How different things are two hundred and thirty seven years later. Our freedom seems to be threatened on evey hand and arsenals have advanced from musket and cannon to jet bombers, hydrogen bombs and serin gas. The blood and guts willingly sacrificed for freedom during those two hundred and thirty seven years seems unbelievable and heart breaking to say the least. But we are free! I'm asking myself right now what I would honestly sacrifice for freedom. Yes,I like probably you, would give it all! It's the only answer I can honestly give. Freedom is in my DNA. Our country is war weary and we are tired after ten consecutive years of it. But we are still free! It seems we are slipping farther behind financially. But we are still free. And if we allow Bashir Asaad to get by with gassing to death his own people, we are still free. But for how long we must ask? Just as it was in Thomas Paines day---there is no place in America for the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot.---If we stand nonchalantly by and allow Asaad to get by with this monstrous act, we can only cower in shame and await another Bashir Asaad to come for us and our children! THERE WAS A DOOR TO WHICH I HAD NO KEY THERE WAS A VAIL THRU WHICH I COULD NOT SEE THERE WAS A LITTLE WHILE FOR ME AND THEE BUT THEN NO MORE OF THEE AND ME