My good friend Katy Chaffin wrote this piece. As a vet and a proud military spouse, I feel she is qualified in a very unique way to express what so many of us feel. Katy’s family is currently serving our country overseas. 

“Each time my family is separated in defense of this “Great Nation” I become increasingly disheartened. To what end are our service members and their families sacrificing so much? All the time we hear, “thank you for your service.” We appreciate those words, we really do, but often times I feel it’s just something that is said. Our country is a great and wonderful place of opportunity but it is still a very young country and we have so much to learn.

If you truly want to thank us, start taking better care of the country we work so hard to defend. Do something nice for someone. Quit teaching your children to be lazy, entitled brats and instead teach them that hard work and sacrifice are a good and rewarding thing. Teach them that it’s okay to be an electrician, or plumber, or a berry picker! All of these jobs need to be done and not a single job should be “beneath” doing and doing well.

Quit being violent to one another. Quit using harsh language and judging other races, religions and people of other sexual orientations. Walk a mile in their shoes and you’ll realize that hey, they are human just like you and deserve love and respect just like you! It’s okay to have an opinion, it’s not okay to use your opinion to oppress, bully, or dissolve the rights of another human being.

Instead of being upset and bitter about all the things you don’t have appreciate the people and things you do have. We need to stop teaching our kids that instead of working hard for things it’s okay to try and take them from other people or get ahead at the expense of someone else. Things are so much more rewarding when you work hard for them.

I love America, I am an very proud American. I just feel like our people are in a downward slide of Self Entitlement, Hate, Ignorance, and Violence. We need to teach our youth to take care of this great country we are handing down to them. Teach them the golden rule -”Treat Others The Way You Want To Be Treated”.  Just because it isn’t 100% in line with your beliefs doesn’t make it wrong – just different. Different is good, if we were all the same how boring would life be? We have a wonderful melting pot of culture in our country and we need to embrace it. Open your minds and your hearts people. It’s really that simple.”