I want you to close your eyes and picture in your
 mind the soldier at
 Valley
 Forge, as he holds his musket in his bloody hands.
 He stands barefoot in
 the snow, starved from lack of food, wounded from
 months of battle and
 emotionally scarred from the eternity away from his
 family surrounded by
 nothing but death and carnage of war. He stands
 though, with fire in his
 eyes and victory on his breath. He looks at us now
 in anger and disgust
 and
 tells us this...
 
 I gave you a birthright of freedom born in the
 Constitution and now your
 children graduate too illiterate to read it.
 
 I fought in the snow barefoot to give you the
 freedom to vote and you
 stay
 at home because it rains.
 
 I left my family destitute to give you the freedom
 of speech and you
 remain
 silent on critical issues, because it might be bad
 for business.
 
 I orphaned my children to give you a government to
 serve you and it has
 stolen democracy from the people.
 
 It's the soldier not the reporter who gives you the
 freedom of the press.
 
 It's the soldier not the poet who gives you the
 freedom of speech.
 
 It's the soldier not the campus organizer who allows
 you to demonstrate.
 
 It's the soldier who salutes the flag, serves the
 flag, whose coffin is
 draped with the flag that allows the protester to
 burn the flag!!!