The Price They Paid
- William Davis
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
I’ve been thinking about America a lot lately.
It might be because we’re celebrating 250 years as a nation. It might be because we seem to be screaming at each other more than we are listening. Doesn’t really matter. Either way, I keep coming back to the same thought.
How often do we stop and consider what it really took to build this country?
I’m not talking about dollars.
I’m not talking about politics.
I’m talking about people.
Every freedom that we enjoy today came at a cost. Someone paid the price long before you and I were born.
When we learned about the Revolutionary War growing up, the stories always focused on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the heroes with names we remember today. They deserve to be remembered.
But thousands of others fought and died so that our country could thrive. We’ll never know their names.
Farmer. Blacksmith. Teacher. Merchant. Parents. Sons. Brothers.
Young men who left their homes because they believed in something worth fighting for.
Something worth protecting.
A country. THE United States of America.
Many of them didn’t get to return home.
That story didn’t end with the Revolutionary War.
Each generation since has had battles to fight. Whether they volunteered or were drafted, once they raised their hand to serve, they stood in the boots of those who came before them.
They accepted the fact that they may not return home to their families.
Could you or would you have been willing to do that?.
Every name etched into a marble wall was someone’s son, someone’s daughter.
Someone’s husband, someone’s wife.
Someone’s dad, someone’s mom.
Someone who has a family who still wonders what life would be like if their hero had made it home.
We often talk about war like it’s a chapter in a history book.
Families never get to view it that way.
They remember birthdays without a parent being there to open gifts.
Christmases with an empty chair at the dinner table.
The folded flag that was placed in the arms of a young widow.
They’re the parents who buried their children.
That’s the price of freedom.
From Lexington and Concord to Yorktown…
Gettysburg to Normandy…
The frozen hills of Korea to the jungles of Vietnam…
The deserts of Iraq to the mountains of Afghanistan.
Americans have always answered their country’s call.
I’m proud of how many answered that call on their own.
Yes, there have been wars where the draft was employed. We shouldn’t forget that part of our history either.
But we also have far more Americans who could have served but did not have to serve.
They chose to serve nonetheless.
Since 1973, when the draft ended, every single American who has died while serving our country has been part of an all-volunteer military.
Nobody forced them to raise their right hand and swear to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
They chose to do that. Every single one.
I think that’s worth remembering.
Did they all agree with the decisions being made in Washington? Of course not.
But that’s not what they signed up for.
They signed up to stand next to their brothers and sisters.
They signed up to defend the country they loved.
I’ve been thinking about something else, too.
Americans have always loved arguing about politics.
Our Founding Fathers got into plenty of heated arguments themselves.
Members of Congress argue. Presidents argue. The country has had strongly-held opinions on issues since there was a country to discuss them.
And that’s part of what makes America great. We live in a country where we can question everything.
Question our leaders. Debate ideas. Disagree with decisions.
That’s part of being American.
But I do wonder if, before we decide to radically change the foundation this country was built on, we remember what those who came before us were fighting for.
Not because America has always gotten everything right.
Far from it.
But because millions of Americans loved this country enough to put themselves in harm’s way to protect it anyway.
Some gave the ultimate sacrifice.
It shouldn’t discourage us from continuing to fight for what we believe in and trying to make America better than it was before we got here.
But it should cause us to take a minute and remember what others gave so we could freely do that.
Are we teaching our kids this stuff? About the cost of freedom?
Not just the dates and the dead. About the sacrifice.
The courage it took to leave their families and give us hope.
The families who had to say goodbye and wait for news that may never come.
I know freedom isn’t free.
I worry we spend more time teaching our kids the price of things than we do the price of freedom.
As we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, let’s remember all the famous names.
Let’s remember the young private who has a weathered headstone halfway across the world.
Let’s remember the sailor who gave his life so that his ship could still sail.
Let’s remember the pilot who flew so many missions his last one became his final mission.
Let’s remember the nurse who took care of her countrymen until her last breath.
Let’s remember the Marine who gave so much until their family got that fateful knock on their door.
We might not know their names.
But each of us has our freedom because of the gifts they left behind.
They did their part. Now it’s our turn.
Will we remember our history?
Will we fight for the freedoms we were given? Or will we choose an "easy way" that has failed in every other society it has been tried in throughout history?
Will we leave this country better than we found it?
That’s the legacy every generation gets to accept.
Today, it’s ours. #America250
