Worth Dying For

 
I got up with Don this morning at 5.  Since summer vacation started for the kids, and with me working nights, I've been making it a habit to let him get up with the alarm at 5am (5:18 by the time the snooze button is done) and I have been staying in bed in the morning until sometime between 7:30 and 8:30...depending on how late the kids want to let me sleep.  One thing though that I've lost by doing things that way is my quiet peaceful time to think in the morning.  Before the sun rises, before the kids wake up...when it's just my coffee and me.  This morning was nice.  Paige slept until 6:15.

*It was nice to be able to choose when to get out of bed and what to do with my morning.*

Speaking of summer vacation, I really am enjoying it for the most part.  There's some bickering amongst the kiddos, which one would expect of course with siblings.  It's nice though to have them both out of school together at the same time, I look forward to sending them to school at the same time in the fall, to the SAME school!  :)

*It's nice to be able to choose to send them to school on the military base, and it's a blessing that both of my children can go to school - not just my son because he's male.*

I'm not entirely sure what we'll do today.  I have to get the house straightened up and I do work tonight, so probably nothing too strenuous.  Maybe we'll go for a walk or ride our bikes to the park.

*It's nice to be able to walk down the street in the neighborhood.  Freely and peacefully.*

Are you sensing a theme yet?  Maybe something to do with freedom?  The little everyday freedoms that we take for granted - the ones that we might not even realize are there.  Those little ones that are so easy to forget about.

So back to the beginning...I got up with Don this morning.  I sat down at my computer to catch up with some headlines, since I have somehow not watched the news for the greater part of a week.  The first headline that jumped out at me was about 4 bodies found in the Arizona desert.  "Great." I thought to myself - "...more murder.".  I clicked on the article to see if perhaps it was some mob hit or interesting mystery find, out in the middle of nowhere.  While it *was* out in the middle of nowhere - it was no mystery.  The article stated:  "It is probable that they are immigrants attempting to cross into the U.S." - and initial indications pointed to exposure as cause of death.  They were 70 miles north of the Arizona border.  These people trekked 70 miles through the desert - to their deaths no less - just vying for freedom.  They just wanted to get to America.

How many people spend their lives just wanting to get to America?  How many people die trying?

As an American I know I take SO much for granted.  I don't know how it feels to be told that I can't worship God.  My God or ANY God.  I don't know what it's like to live under the thumb of communist leadership.  I don't know what it's like to grow up in the trenches of child labor and sex trade.  I don't know how it feels to be told I can't go to school.  I don't know what it feels like to work in a cramped sweat shop 18 hours a day.  I don't know what it feels like to go hungry.  

I've never been told that I can't follow my dreams.  I've never been told that I can't have them.

I sit here in my 3 bedroom house, with my two dogs and a cat, two kids and a guinea pig.  I sit here this morning drinking my coffee, blogging on my computer (with my non government censored internet), planning my day as I see fit, to do whatever I want to do with it.  Because I can.  Because I have the freedom to do so.

There's an answer to the immigration issue, and I will be the first to tell you I have no idea what it is.  But one thing I do believe - everyone should have the right to try to make it here.  Everyone should have a right to freedom.  I know it's complicated, I know the answers aren't easy.  I know for a fact that there are many people out there that literally hate immigrants just because of the way they look or the way they smell or the fact that they don't speak very good english - or no English at all.  But who are we to judge?  What right do WE have to say "You are worthless, you don't belong here, get off my street and get out of MY country."  MY country. 

The following verse is inscribed on our Statue of Liberty - the symbol of our country:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free;
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless,
Tempest-tossed to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door..."

As far as I see it, everyone deserves a chance at freedom.

Freedom worth dying for.