I was having a discussion with a friend of mine about why teens of our generation hated Bush so much.  He told me when he was in junior high and high school the main reason that they hated Bush was because they thought he was going to bring the draft back following the attacks on 9/11.  They feared they would be required join the military services against their will simply with the stroke of then President Bush’s pen, and they hated him for it.

The problem with this point of view is that it has no regard for the price of freedom.  I wish I could ask those students where they think freedom comes from?  Do they think that they are entitled to it and that the rest of the world just accepts that entitlement as a given?  Do they think that threats against our freedom are obsolete and that we don’t need to defend them anymore? Or would they just rather that someone else did the dying while they stayed home and enjoyed the freedom?

While few would admit it, a large portion of my generation would selfishly answer yes to these questions. The idea that freedom requires work and sometimes death in order for it to continue is completely foreign to us, as we have never experienced anything else. Certainly nobody likes to be told what to do or be forced to do something that they don’t want to do. However, when placed in the context of somebody crashing a plane into your building or invading your country this is all the more reason to fight to protect your freedom. When we realize just how easily liberty can be lost we feel an urgent desire to defend it without need of coercion or draft. Thanks to all who heeded that urgency, and gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we could be free.

“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13