We interrupt this broadcast...

Today's blog entry has been pre-empted to bring you this heartfelt and soul-wrenching post about what a HERO is...

For those who are used to my sometimes witty, and often satirical, view of the world, and myself, please indulge me.

HERO is such a small word, but it's meaning is greater than any can imagine, unless they have had the privilege to know a TRUE HERO.

I have been lucky enough to know TWO.

As I write this, a funeral is taking place, in a church, outside a small town in Maryland.

I can not be there in person, but am there in my heart, and know that the church is now over flowing with people showing their respect, and yes thanks, for the sacrifice made by a young man of 21, barely old enough to bUy a beer, but plenty old enough to shoulder the responsibility of leading a unit, of caring for his men, and willing to make the supreme sacrifice in their stead.


Marine Cpl. Kurt Shea is being laid to rest today. His family will say their last good-byes, his friends will say "See you later", knowing that when their times come, they will. He will be there waiting with a ready smile, his head tilted slightly, and a smart remark to make them feel at home.

How he died is not the reason he is a Hero, but the result.
His ideals, his convictions, and his allegiance to living a life true to them is what makes him a Hero.

Love of God, Love of Country, Love of Family... these are the truths he lived everyday.

As I was standing, waiting for the Memorial Service his DeMolay brothers were about to begin, I learned some distressing, but not surprising, information.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church were planning to demonstrate outside his funeral service today. This gave me pause. How can God-loving, self-described Christians, so negate the life of a man of honor and dignity?

Anger and sorrow filled me with contempt for these people.
Until I looked at the slide show of Kurt, detailing his short, but love filled life.

And I realized what he knew all along; saw him for the TRUE HERO he IS.

He fully understood, and took on the responsibility, of being one of THE ONES who make those people able to do what they do, say what they say.

And if not for the very ones they cry out against...

Where would they be?

This is for Kurt and his DeMolay Brother, Marine Sgt.Charles Cartwright, TWO HEROs I will remember and THANK GOD for...

Always.

Sometimes you just have to say it out loud...

Prayer of a Soldier in France

Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918)
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Written while in France working in Intelligence, and although NOT assigned to active duty on the front line, he stood with the First Battalion at the Battle of Ourcq and gave the greatest sacrifice... himself to save others.
He was awarded the Croix de Guerre for his bravery.

This poem makes me think not only of what THAT must have been like, but Jesus' walk, carrying the Cross to his final destination, and the Sacrifice he was willing to make.
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MY shoulders ache beneath my pack
(Lie easier, Cross, upon His back).

I march with feet that burn and smart
(Tread, Holy Feet, upon my heart).

Men shout at me who may not speak
(They scourged Thy back and smote Thy cheek).

I may not lift a hand to clear
My eyes of salty drops that sear.

(Then shall my fickle soul forget
Thy Agony of Bloody Sweat?)

My rifle hand is stiff and numb
(From Thy pierced palm red rivers come).

Lord, Thou didst suffer more for me
Than all the hosts of land and sea.

So let me render back again
This millionth of Thy gift. Amen.