Winning the hearts of....anyone?

      My family and I have been watching band of brothers this week, in our own, personal way to celebrate Independence Day. The movies are absolutely heart breaking, but to my dad, who's a Desert Storm Vet, not all too unfamiliar.
      During a part in France, there's a scene where the find a man in a bomb shelter. They were about to shoot him, when they realized he was a citizen and had a little boy with him. To show the boy the men meant no harm to him, they gave the little guy a chocolate bar and the dad informed them he had never even tasted chocolate before. My dad spoke up sharing to Jason a fact I remembered but never made me think so deeply as it did this time.
      You see, during WW2, America was said to win the hearts of Europe's women and children. We did this by not scaring them or hurting them, but being kind and giving out chocolate bars. Now we win the hearts of no one. During Iraq our soldiers were not allowed to do things like this. Instead, they were informed to kill everyone, including women and children. Innocent bystanders blown away due to American pride.
       I got the privilege of meeting an Iraq Vet, who got awarded a purple heart for getting his leg blown off. He had some pictures of the war, and all the women in the doughnut shop that morning were insisting I should not be allowed to see the pictures. I told them I'd be fine, so He let me take a look. I saw families murdered brains every where, the pictures of his leg blown off. But one picture I was not expecting.
      There was this little boy standing behind caution tape, held back by our men. He was covered in blood and brains, screaming. In the next picture it showed his family on the ground shot, and it became apparent he was covered in their blood and brains. For weeks I saw this boy in my head and in my dreams. You see, it wasn't that I was traumatized. I was in love with this little boy who made my heart hurt so bad. I wanted to run to him and take him in, to tell him a lie that everything would be OK. I wanted to hurt the monsters that would do this to a boy no more than 8.
      In time, I knew that wasn't fair. The monsters were only doing what they were told, and couldn't directly be blamed. I learned an important lesson through all of this, though:

 Once our Nation stood tall,
built on a foundation of God.



Tearing through it all,
we turned our heads away,
hopelessly lost,
losing more every day.


We think we'll resist,
that we can overcome,
but we made a fatal error,
now we're already done.


We'll take our judgment,
with ignorant heads held high,
assuming were still the best,
but that's more than a lie.


We turned our backs on our purpose,
we ignored our faith,
our founding fathers would cry in shame.


For every thing they fought for,
and every thing they risked,
all adds up to nothing,
as it was meant for God,
the good of thee people,
Freedom, liberty, life,
and we threw it all away.