Freedom is not Free!

While many claim "This is a free country! I can do whatever I want!", we need to understand that freedom is not free!  Someone had to fight, bleed and die to give us this great nation.  It does us all good to remember this, in order that we do not step of the sacrifice of those men and women who gave their lives to ratify our Constitution.  Below are some of the instances of men and women who put thier lives, fortunes, and more on the line for you and me:

The Signers of Your Declaration of Independence:

• Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and terrorists and were tortured before they were executed.
• Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
• Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.
• Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.
• John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside when she was dying.  Their 13 children fled for their lives and his fields were laid to waste.  For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and children vanished.  A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.
• Lewis Morris and Philip Livingston suffered similar fates.

Freedom Is Not Free!

• World War I — 116,516 Americans stained the battlefields red with their blood to give you your “constitutional” rights!  Do you know your “constitutional” rights?  My Grandpa served in this war.
• World War II — 405,399Americans stained the battlefields red with their blood to uphold the Declaration of Independence.  Do you know the Declaration of Independence?  My uncle served in this war.
• Korea — 36,516 men stained the battlefield red with their blood to insure that you uphold your Bill of Rights.  Do you know your Bill of Rights?  My Dad served in this war.
• Vietnam — 58,151 men stained the battlefield red with their blood so you would have your liberty!  My cousin died in this war.
• Iraq — as of May 2008, more than 4,083 men and women have stained the battlefields red with their blood.  Are you holding men and women in government responsible for the freedoms these men and women died for?  If not, then what did they die for?  Read Isaiah 53.  In the spiritual sense, Jesus Christ did the same thing to redeem mankind!