In recent days our community and our nation have seen both flabbergasting horror and inspiring heroism.  The American way of life came under direct attack and that attack should cause us to re-evaluate our responsibilities as a free people.  If I may be allowed to speak further on this subject, I would like to discuss a few of the responsibilities that freedom entails.  Freedom is not free and; to those who have fought for it freedom has a flavor that they- the protected- shall never taste.  These are not my words; they are the words of men who spent days fearing nights, and spent nights begging for dawn and home.  I should think that they are the true experts on freedom and who America is and was.

   We have the responsibility to remember those who have and are defending our freedom.  A mother with a child in the Armed Forces has a different thought life than a mother whose child is simply away at college.  The mother of the latter knows the price tag of freedom but can easily forget about it in the day-to-day of life.  The mother of the former, however, cannot forget freedom's price tag; everywhere she looks she sees it, it has her child's name on it.

   We must never forget who America is.  America is one nation- though made up of many different parts and peoples.  America is under Almighty God and founded upon the principles Christians are said to believe in and practice.  America is indivisible from outside forces; therefore our enemies are not as much of an imminent threat as our own prides and prejudices, which contradict the Godly morals, that this country's foundation was based upon.  America is a beacon of liberty to the rest of the world.

   Thomas Paine said, "Those who expect the blessings of liberty must undergo the fatigues of supporting it."  Everyone in this country has the responsibility of supporting our freedom the American way- with morals and ethics like the ones this nation was founded on.