The cool winds of November once again remind us that the eleventh is approaching. A date set aside to remember those who have given service to their country, to us. Yes to you and I. We often recall those who have fallen silent, nameless upon the battle fields of history.

This year I would ask you to in your travels to visit a memorial and to touch the names written there. Then to softly say the name of one written there. Give that name a voice…..your voice. Like the many colored leaves that fall upon the ground they so often get lost under foot. Yet when we kneel and pick one up, its color and coolness finds a beauty we so miss as we step through them.

This day is to honor those living as well. Those who have served and those who are serving. How often we forget. I don’t think that we intend to, but the pressures of our times seem to take so much of our time and our thoughts. Speak softly that one name……..and remember. This name held a dream, a life. Now etched in stone it sits in silence….our silence. What would this voice tell us today. Would it express pride in how we have used this freedom so dearly paid for? To those who still leave for places far away and to those who return have we done justice to their sacrifice? They have proven their commitment, showed their courage. What of ours? We have a duty to them to those yet to come.

We are a people often lost to the void of politics and to the illusion so skillfully placed into our minds. These are the voices of November. They need not remain silent. If we simply speak. They have passed to us their dreams. They have given us the gift of realizing ours.

This November Eleventh, touch one name and speak it softly. Let it once again move in the winds that blow across our land. You may find that something happens when you do. Theirs was to give us this day, this chance to remember and to recall that we too owe something to our country and to each other. Patriotism is not dead it is just silent at times………let it at first whisper if you must, then let it shout loudly.

This Remembrance day Remember and cherish that memory. It is ours. Paid for by those we did not know……….but perhaps by name. A single name touched by your hand and released by your voice. For yours is the voice of freedom, of hope and in it the future awaits.

God Bless those who have served, are serving and will serve. May God Bless those who need to remember and to grasp onto their freedom………and may God Bless America the symbol of all that is free. May we awaken from the illusion of want from under the veil of fear and see who it is that we really are.

©Mike McConnery/Baden K9 Incorporated,11/05/08

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