Thankful: Day 2 (or Day 12)

I know that yesterday was Veteran's Day but I thought that I would write about it today. I am so grateful to the men and women who serve this country in uniform. I don't agree with the politicians who send them into harms way all the time, but I shed many tears of gratitude when I hear what individuals and families are sacrificing under the banner of American Freedom. We have made a huge mess in Iraq (a sort of hornet's nest that was just waiting to be agitated if you ask me... and now we just have to keep holding up the net around the nest until the hornets settle down... if they settle down). But we have men and women who are working very hard to make the situation there (and by ripple effect elsewhere in the world) better. And for that I am thankful.

As I was driving home from work today (all of a five minute commute, something else I am thankful for!) I heard a story on NPR about Somalia. I don't know how much you know about what is going on over there, but from what I have gathered it is bad. The Somalian government, along with the help of the Ethiopian Army, are fighting a group called the Union of Islamic Courts, who used to completely control the capital Mogadishu and who are now hulled up in certain spots. A few days ago they captured, killed and drug through the streets an Ethiopian soldier (Black Hawk Down all over again). 130,000 people have fled their homes in the capital in the last week... 130,000! And they are heading to the country to stay with family and other clansmen who are already undernourished and overstretched. As I listened to the story my heart went out to those poor displaced people. You know that most of them are honest, hardworking people. They are parents, grandparents, and children who have been driven out of their homes by something that has nothing to do with them. And they now have no idea when or if they will be able to go home and how they are going to provide for their families until they can.

How lucky am I to be living in a land where I know that I am safe when I go to bed at night and when I awake in the morning? To live in a country where I do not have to fear speaking my mind or criticizing my own government? I am so thankful to live in this country, which was fought for and defended by so many miraculous men and women throughout history.

Sorry for my soap-box... I promise tomorrow's thankfulness will be less preachy.