A good friend of mine whom I worked with for over 5 years sent me A Different Christmas Poem. The poem says it was written by LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN 30th Naval Construction Regiment OIC, Logistics Cell One Al Taqqadum,
It was a very touching poem and we should be grateful that so many young people are willing to help protect our country. We should be thankful for them not only at Christmas but all through the year.
The tragedy is that more often than not, our soldiers are protecting us from the wrong people. More often than not our armed forces are on the wrong battle field. More often than not our men and women in uniform are fighting with the wrong weapons. More often than not our service men and women are following the orders from those who have a different agenda from what they vocally express in public.
Perhaps we should take this Christmas season and the closing of another year to consider the person we pay tribute to this holiday season. If I recall correctly, He was for peace, goodwill to all mankind, forgiveness of wrong doing. He held only love for all men and women. He did, however, strongly oppose some of the actions carried out by greedy self-serving individuals; the “tax collectors” of those days, for example.
In looking over the past 35-40 years, and thinking about the wars we fought in other countries trying to force our will and way of living onto other cultures, I ask myself, “Were these wars really to protect my country, my family and me? Or were they to help satisfy the greed and power hungry appetites of a few?”
There is a real war going on in our country right now and what are we doing about it? Businesses are having to downsize and/or close their doors. People are loosing their jobs. More and more people are demanding that our government give us money to feed our families, provide shelter and medical care. We seem to have forgotten why our government was formed in the first place and what its role was meant to be.
I ask myself this question every time I read or hear about more and more businesses struggling to stay open, every time I read or hear about the next government bailout, every time I read or hear about the newest government handout to help those unwilling to help themselves (those who can’t help themselves should be helped by those who have more than enough, on a voluntary basis – and yes I do believe that can and will happen when given more freedom).
If businesses are closing and if people are out of work, then where is the money going to come from to pay for the bailouts, the unemployed, the hungry, and the sick? Perhaps this is what our government needs to be focusing on going into 2009. Perhaps our government needs to re-study our Constitution and start doing what they are meant to be doing. Their job is not to print more money (which is the only way they will be able to actually pay for all of their handouts). Their job is neither to restrict business nor to protect business. The laws of supply and demand of quality and service will determine if businesses succeed or fail. Their job is not to ensure that everyone has a job and enough money to pay for all of the frivolous junk that we have been seduced into buying in our ever ongoing attempts to “keep up with the Jones”. Their job is not to feed the hungry and provide a roof over our heads.
It is each of our responsibilities to take care of ourselves and our families. We are each given the ability to make a positive difference in our world and when we do that, we will have all that we truly need. When given the freedom to be in charge of their own destiny, people will be more generous with what they have. It is only when we are restricted and held back that we begin to horde our wealth.
So what is our government’s responsibility? It is to protect us from real external and internal threats to our freedom. It is to ensure that each of us have the right to life, liberty and our pursuit of happiness, as long as we do not infringe on the rights of others to the same. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure there is a degree of order in our country such as driving rules and procedures to follow when someone is wronged by another.
2009 can and will be the greatest year for self growth when we each decide to take responsibility for our own lives and not wait for or demand that the government decide for us how we are to live. Each of us knows what we need to do to make 2009 our best year ever and we are the only ones who have the right and the responsibility to do what we know to be right and best for us. So ask not what your country can do for you. Rather ask what you can do for yourself.
That reminds me of the story about the father whose son wanted his Dad to play with him. The father was too busy watching the game on TV. (Can you imagine a father putting a silly game before his own flesh and blood?) Finally, the father took a picture of the world from the newspaper and tore it up into little pieces and then said to his son, “Son, when you put this picture of the world back together correctly, I will play with you.”
Of course the father figured it will take his son a long time to put that puzzle back together. However, five minutes later his son came back and said, “Look Dad. I’m finished.” His father was amazed and impressed and he asked his son, “Son, how did you solve the puzzle so quickly?” His son replied with a great big smile on his face, “Well, Dad, on the other side of the map of the world was a picture of a man. When I put the man right, the world simply fell into place.”
Now for the “A Different Christmas Poem” that got me motivated to write this in the first place.
A Different Christmas Poem
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
‘What are you doing?’ I asked without fear,
‘Come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!’
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire’s light
Then he sighed and he said ‘Its really all right,
I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night.’
‘It’s my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ‘
Then he sighed, ‘That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.’
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue… an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.’
‘ So go back inside,’ he said, ‘harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.’
‘But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,
‘Give you money,’ I asked, ‘or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,
For being away from your wife and your son.’
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
‘Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.’
PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many
people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our
U.S service men and women for our being able to celebrate these
festivities. Let’s try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people
stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.
LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum,