Live Free

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once said, ~The terrorists wanted Sept. 11th to be a day when innocents died. Instead it was a day when heroes were born.~ Here is a sad statistic and that is at least 2,823 people were killed not only in the Twin Towers, but also in the planes that hit them. As each of soberly reflect on this most tragic of days you have to be thankful for not just the unsung heroes on that day who risked their own lives to find survivors at Ground Zero, but to God also for being given the gift of life as there are men, as well as, women out there as we speak fighting for a cause that we tend to take for granted at times. For it’s our freedom we all thoroughly enjoy and yet there are "bad guys" out there who despise us for having the right to do such things as expressing our opinions, bearing arms for protection's sake, and voting for the next President of the United States.

Without a doubt, we all have freedom of speech when it pertains to certain issues that are either in the news or concerning our daily lives. Whatever is on your mind can be freely expressed out loud without being threatened with imprisonment, bodily harm, or something much worse like death for what you personally believe in. Looking back on our history, this country was built on the views of many and even though you may not agree with it you respect what they're all about. However, you have to walk a fine line between having your own opinions and just being maliciously hurtful towards your fellow man/woman. With this being the technological age, internet and video blogging has become the norm whereby giving people such as myself an open forum to freely express their personal views and whether or not you accept it, you take it for what its worth.

Let me ask you this question, do you own any kind of firearms in your home for the expressed purpose of defending what's most precious to you such as your spouse, kids, family, and friends. The right to bear arms is a constitutional amendment in which a number of people support in order to protect by any means necessary what is most sacred to them and if anybody tries to harm that in any way then he/she/they will suffer the consequences by having their life taken away. Although I'm not the type of person who has never owned or fired a gun for that matter, I have friends who do and I respect them for that because they have families of their own to consider. It's unclear as to whether or not I will ever own a gun, but it's not out of the question being that I may someday have a family of my own, causing me to take the initiative so my family can be safe.

If you think about it, one of the greatest freedoms we have in the United States is being able to vote whereby giving us the power to choose who runs our country whereas with other countries they have a monarchy or radical, tyrannical dictator to rule over them...but I digress. As we've all seen in past months the candidates have been campaigning to win us over and being a Republican I have chosen my 3 presidential candidates: Former New York Mayor Rudy Gulianni, Sen. John McCain, and Sen. Fred Thompson. When it comes to Thompson, I didn't base my decision on him being a former cast member on the hit tv show Law and Order. I based it on the issues such as his stance on foreign policy, gun control, gay marriage, and abortion in which he is prolife. In any case, whether you're for Obama, Clinton, or whoever you choose who you think would best put America on the right path.

In retrospect, we're all considered heroes as we live life to the fullest without fear knowing there are dark outside forces who have made it their mission to destroy what freedoms we have. Personally speaking, I'm proud to call myself an American and even though I wasn't born in this country I've enjoyed much of the freedoms that it has offered me. What it comes down to is choice as we decide to listen to the music that makes us feel good, buy the clothes that we like to wear, criticize our nation's leaders for doing seemingly stupid, etc. and they are just a handful of freedoms each and every one of us have. In the end, we all continue to live free because our armed forces put their lives on the line spilling their blood for us to do whatever we want, within legal reason of course, and thinking about it imagining not being able to live without freedom is something truly unimaginable.