THE MOVING WALL

First of all, Happy Veteran's Day. I hope that this day falling on a weekend will allow more people to take some time and reflect on the unfathomable sacrifices that so many brave men and women have made and continue to make so that we can live in our country full of more freedom than most other people in this world will ever know.

Several weeks ago, The Moving Wall came to Houston at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Park on it's national tour. The Moving Wall is a smaller replica of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Wall in DC.

It was such an amazing experience to be completely emotionally overwhelmed by the number of young men and women who gave their life. My maternal grandfather, whom I didn't know very well, was in the service & my favorite Uncle Don was a Marine who served in the South Pacific during World War II. He has some incredible memories about Iwo Jim and Peleliu.

The Wall is an incredible reminder and a physical memory of the scars that the Vietnam War created not only on the lives of those who were in the military, but of the huge pain it caused our entire country.

I will freely admit I was in tears as I walked around this memories, the names whirled around me and I couldn't grasp what the thousands of names really represented.

As far as you could see, the names rolled on and on of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country. You could also see on the wall something even bigger than those names. If you watched the other vets who came to the wall, to see the names of their friends and family. To see the names of those who served and died by their side, you could watch the pain and tragedy in their face. There were hundreds of thousands more serviceman, family and friends who will forever be changed to the core because of the Vietnam War.

An interesting thing I learned that day was about the symbols that separated names. A cross denoted that the body of that serviceman had never been recovered. If the body was returned home for burial, then a diamond was etched into the wall.

My heartfelt and most sincere thanks from the bottom of my heart to those who served & who continue to serve so that I can live such a blessed life.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Home of the free because of the brave.