I've included a beautiful video paying tribute to the military with the "Freedom Isn't Free" poem being read.
Very touching! Feel free to share with any servicemember or veteran.
"Freedom Isn't Free" Poem
I watched the flag pass by one day. It fluttered in the breeze A young soldier saluted it, and then He stood at ease. I looked at him in uniform So young, so tall, so proud With hair cut square and eyes alert He'd stand out in any crowd. I thought how many men like him Had fallen through the years. How many died on foreign soil? How many mothers' tears? How many Pilots' planes shot down? How many foxholes were soldiers' graves? No Freedom isn't free
I heard the sound of taps one night, When everything was still. I listened to the bugler play And felt a sudden chill. I wondered just how many times That taps had meant "Amen" When a flag had draped a coffin of a brother or a friend. I thought of all the children, Of the mothers and the wives, Of fathers, sons and husbands With interrupted lives. I thought about a graveyard at the bottom of the sea Of unmarked graves in Arlington..... No -- Freedom isn't free!!
I love my country's pine-clad hills, Her thousand bright and gushing rills, Her sunshine and her storms; Her rough and rugged rocks, that rear Their hoary heads high in the air In wild, fantastic forms.
I love her rivers, deep and wide, Those mighty streams that seaward glide To seek the ocean's breast; Her smiling fields, her pleasant vales, Her shady dells, her flow'ry dales, The haunts of peaceful rest.
I love her forests, dark and lone, For there the wild bird's merry tone I hear from morn till night; And there are lovelier flowers, I ween, Than e'er in Eastern lands were seen, In varied colors bright.
Her forests and her valleys fair, Her flowers that scent the morning air-- All have their charms for me; But more I love my country's name, Those words that echo deathless fame, "The Land of Liberty."
