Am I Worth Dying For?
Centcom: A Paratrooper from the 618th Engineer Support Company (Airborne) walks across the dusty, desert terrain pulling security on the outskirts of Siniyah, Iraq. The Paratroopers used bulldozers to construct a berm almost around the entire city to isolate terrorists who operate out of it. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michael Carden.
In looking over the past year I find myself thinking of numbers. The main stream media seems gleefully obsessed with counting bodies of American Soldiers. A lot of the leftists blogs are keeping track of the numbers of Iraqi dead in what they call ‘Bush’s war of revenge’ among other things.
I’ve read how many people Saddam Hussien killed during his reign as the Butcher of Baghdad. Saddam’s numbers are being compared to Hitler’s numbers. There are calculations of what kinds of numbers we can expect to be killed if Iran gets their nuke program up and running. There are numbers of people coming over our borders legally and illegally, most of the numbers are for those coming here illegally. There are numbers of muslims infilterating society in Europe … and in America. There are numbers identifying how many species are threatened by global warming. Numbers are everywhere.
All these numbers make me think of what Joseph Stalin said about these kinds of numbers …
One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic.
The carnage of the Global War on Terrorism; the attack of September 11, 2001, the deaths in Spain, England, Somalia, Indonesia and throughout the world, has been turned into statistics. It’s easy to roll a statistic off our tongues without feeling our hearts sink.
Statistics are impersonal.
What is worth all this? Most of us think in terms of large ideals. Is America worth dying for? Yes! Is freedom worth dying for? Yes! Why are our sons and daughters fighting on the other side of the world? For freedom, America and justice! To protect us from jihadists who would be here if they weren’t fighting them there.
The concepts of freedom, democracy, justice and the American way are also impersonal. They are parts of our lives that we take for granted and rarely contemplate what has been done, and needs to be done, for us to continue to take them for granted.
At the end of one of the many movies about Wyatt Earp, he is being praised for having saved the life of a man years earlier. He asks the boy who is admiring him what happened to the man after that. The man had continued to cause trouble and was eventually killed in a gun battle. The boy says, ‘I guess he wasn’t worth saving after all.’
Which brings me to what has been boiling around in my mind. Am I worth dying for? Me. Little ol’ me.
While the politicians argue over theories, forms of government and play political games, our Soldiers fight the wars and we the people make whatever sacrifices are required and look on with a certain amount of powerlessness. So, for me, I have to bring it down to the bottom line. The only thing the I have control over. The only thing I can really do anything about. I have to ask myself, am I worth dying for?
I start the New Year with these thoughts weighing on my mind. The very least I can do is to strive to be worthy of the sacrifices Our Soldiers are making on my behalf.
Dear Lord, lest I continue in my complacent ways, help me to remember that someone died for me today. And if there be war, help me to remember to ask and to answer “am I worth dying for?”
~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, Is It Just Me?, Don Surber, Adam’s Blog, Madman Returns, Stuck On Stupid, The Amboy Times, The Bullwinkle Blog, Jo’s Cafe, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Pet’s Garden Blog, Rightwing Guy, 123 Beta, third world county, The HILL Chronicles, Faultline USA, Woman Honor Thyself, Wake Up America, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, stikNstein… has no mercy, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, The Right Nation, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox News, bRight & Early, and Right Voices, GCHT, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
December 31st, 2006 at 4:38 pm
Wow! That’s very deep and inspirational food for thought!
December 31st, 2006 at 4:40 pm
Great pic, great words, God Bless, Happy New Year.
December 31st, 2006 at 8:19 pm
Kinda heavy for New Years Eve I guess
Thanks for coming by yall!!
December 31st, 2006 at 10:51 pm
[...] So that’s a goal for this year. I will do something SIGNIFICANT each month this year - reach some milestone, do some kindness, make a difference, make a friend, make a change. On December 31, 2007, I want to look back on the year and know that I was worth it - that I made the world a better place and that the sacrifices people have made in order for me to have the life I live were not made in vain. Trackback Permalink Filed under: Remembering, That’s My Life, Headlines/Current Events Socialize This! [...]
December 31st, 2006 at 10:57 pm
I think you are right on in your thinking.
January 1st, 2007 at 12:02 am
Happy New Year Open Trackback Weekend…
I always get ‘misty’ this time of year when I reflect upon the occurrences of the past year…cherised persons we lost to death, those who made a difference in our lives and of course the all important: Who made a fool of themselves (just about e ……
January 1st, 2007 at 12:32 am
I don’t care this dictator dies, but I have to thank him for helping me win a lot of money as I bought his stock in time on trendio
http://www.trendio.com/word.php?wordid=120&language=en
January 1st, 2007 at 12:33 am
Happy New Year Beth
Thanks for stopping by the Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker
January 1st, 2007 at 1:09 am
Layla…
I couldnÂ’t resist! HAPPY NEW YEAR!…
January 1st, 2007 at 2:16 am
[...] Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, Is It Just Me?, The Random Yak, Don Surber, Adam’s Blog, basil’s blog, Madman Returns, Stuck On Stupid, The Amboy Times, The Bullwinkle Blog, Jo’s Cafe, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Pet’s Garden Blog, Rightwing Guy, 123 Beta, The HILL Chronicles, third world county, Faultline USA, Woman Honor Thyself, Wake Up America, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, stikNstein… has no mercy, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, The Right Nation, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox News, bRight & Early, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe. [...]
January 1st, 2007 at 3:07 am
Thanks Veritas! Happy New Year!
January 1st, 2007 at 8:55 am
Welcome to 2007/OTP…
……
January 1st, 2007 at 9:27 am
You are exactly right. Very sobering and thought-provoking.
January 1st, 2007 at 12:05 pm
(MOGS) Holy Hugh Hewitt Batman!…
Hugh Hewitt takes the WSJ’s Joe Rago to task in this interview. In case you forgot here is Rago’s original piece. (link link link) Impressions from the interview: I was surprised to learn that Rago is so young - 23,…
January 1st, 2007 at 12:26 pm
HereÂ’s to YoU..Happy New YeaR!…
Who will you spend New Years with?
It was once believed that you could influence the luck you would have throughout the coming year by what you did or ate on the first day of the year…
January 1st, 2007 at 1:39 pm
The Knucklehead of the Day award…
Today’s winner is Gabriele Meyer. She gets the award for the following….
January 1st, 2007 at 2:40 pm
The Middle East’s big stink…
And TFM only thought stories like this came out of Florida. Is Henry Kissinger available to thwart this brewing diplomatic crisis?…
January 1st, 2007 at 2:40 pm
The Middle East’s big stink….
And TFM only thought stories like this came out of Florida. Is Henry Kissinger available to thwart this brewing diplomatic crisis?…
January 1st, 2007 at 2:51 pm
You’re a real delusional idiot. You invaded Iraq to find the WMD - which of course were never there. You also claimed Saddam had links to Osama… which of course, he didn’t. I don’t hear much about Osama these days, btw? Did you give him a raincheck?
Then you changed the story, and said you’d invaded to bring peace and prosperity to Iraq. Now Iraq is in the middle of a Civil War, and its economy has disappeared down the toilet.
150,000 innocent Iraqi civilians - the ones you claimed to be “saving from Saddam” have been killed in your idiot war. 3,000 American troops have died in this war.
And all for nothing.
You really are a complete yankee fool.
BSC: But Neil, I have to correct you, we DID find WMDs - Wahabi Muslim Dogs.
Otherwise, thanks for your kind words
January 1st, 2007 at 3:58 pm
My thoughts on Gerald Ford…
Former President Gerald Ford will lie in the Capitol Rotunda through Monday for public viewing. His funeral will be held at the National Cathedral on Tuesday, and his body will then be transported to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the services planned…..
January 1st, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Now a time for perspective on our occupation…
I think it important that at the beginning of a New Year we reflect on past events and bring perspective to them now that some time has passed.
Here is what happened before 2007:
We were viciously and without provocation attacked on American soil b…..
January 1st, 2007 at 4:55 pm
I linked to you from Now a time for perspective on our occupation but the TB doesn’t show. Am I caught in your spam filter?
BSC: Yes, you were caught in my spam filter! But I set your TB free and it’s showing up now
Thanks for the link and for coming by. I hope you are you are having a good holiday 
January 1st, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Very powerful, a good way of thinking about things, Beth. Best wishes for the New Year!
Tom (a.k.a. Dumb)
BSC: Thank you Dumb
January 1st, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Oh, and p.s. to Neil: you Lefies (along with some actually sane people) used to appalled by the 100,000 children PER YEAR dying under Saddam’s regime, as he skimmed off funds from the oil-for-food scam. Or maybe you’ve given those dying children a raincheck?
BSC: Uh huh! Yeah. I heard THAT! I was wondering whether or not I should correct him about me being a yankee - I’m not a yankee! I know Brits think we are all yankees - but we aren’t. HEH
January 1st, 2007 at 9:59 pm
A silly mistake by CNN…
Yet quite funny considering…
January 1st, 2007 at 10:26 pm
My Superior Brain in Action…
The Gremlin was out of town for the past four days and I seriously missed having her around. An ordinary cat would be cuddling like crazy to make up for lost time, but I’m smarter than that. By sitting on……
January 1st, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Blogger Halo Award…
I never heard of the ”Blogger Halo Award” until this evening when I received a trackpost from Butch over at 123beta. This is an explanation of how it works and I quickly wanted to get involved since the standards are noteworthy and honorable…
January 2nd, 2007 at 5:58 am
What’s that giant sucking sound?…
Oh, that’s right, the vacuum between John (the lame shall walk) Edwards ears….
January 2nd, 2007 at 8:43 am
Anti-Islamofascist Blogger Censored…
That brought me to Blogger News Network. Apparently a “site editor” removed the article. No explanation was given….
January 2nd, 2007 at 8:49 am
SaddamÂ’s last words…
What exactly were SaddamÂ’s last words? Were they: “Avoid engagement with Iranians”? or as in the Haaretz piece, which quotes SaddamÂ’s last words as “Palestine is Arab”?…
January 2nd, 2007 at 9:29 am
The Knucklehead of the Day award…
Today’s winner is Democratic Congressman John Conyers….
January 2nd, 2007 at 10:38 am
New Year Traffic Jam…
Create your own linkfest below.
To join in, choose a post from your blog to highlight, edit it to add a link to this post, and then send a TrackBack. If your blog doesn’t automatically generate one, use the Send TrackBack feature below. For m…
January 2nd, 2007 at 1:37 pm
“The Essential Pigeon” Reading List…
UPDATED 2 January 07—————————————————————————————————————————————————- For my longest die-hard fans and newest mad pigeoneers, I’ve compiled THE ESSENTIA…
January 2nd, 2007 at 1:42 pm
[...] Dumb Ox News, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe. Filed under Politics | | Trackback URI Leave aComment [...]
January 2nd, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Can You Point Out The Mistake In This Picture…
Can you imagine if Fox had done this?
(linked to ALLAHPUNDIT)
Link Trackposted to Is It Just Me?, Perri Nelson’s Website, Mark My Words, DragonLady’s World, Stuck On Stupid, The Amboy Times, Pursuing Holiness, Pet’s Garden Blog, 123 …
January 2nd, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Don’t buy this software…
I hate to be negative, as this blogging software had great potential…
January 3rd, 2007 at 8:57 am
And Here I thought 2007 Would Be Different…
How silly of me to think that Pat Robertson would think before he spoke. Today he told his listening audience:
Robertson said God told him during a recent prayer retreat that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack…
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:31 pm
[...] Trackposted to Rightwing Guy, Is It Just Me?, Mark My Words, Faultline USA, third world county, Wake Up America, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Madman Returns, DragonLady’s World, The Right Nation, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox News, and Pursuing Holiness, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe. [...]
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:35 pm
[...] Trackposted to Rightwing Guy, Is It Just Me?, Faultline USA, third world county, Wake Up America, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Madman Returns, DragonLady’s World, The Right Nation, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox News, and Pursuing Holiness, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe. [...]
January 4th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
[...] Trackposted to Rightwing Guy, Is It Just Me?, Mark My Words, Faultline USA, third world county, Wake Up America, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Madman Returns, DragonLady’s World, The Right Nation, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox News, and Pursuing Holiness, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe. [...]