The little five year old boy had waited long enough. His parents had left him in the car parked outside a big house and told him to wait and they would be back in just a few minutes. To a five year old a few minutes seem like an hour, so the little boy marched his way up to the big oak door and banged loudly for entrance. A very genial, but somewhat confused man answered and let the youngster come in. He took a left turn through a portico and gazed to his left upon a rather strange sight; a wax figure of an elderly gentleman lying prone in a ceremonial box with not a hint of movement gave the boy pause. At this moment his mother and father appeared to whisk him from this most unusual primary encounter with death.

Fast forward to a senior year in high school and another moment of reflection as he wonders what happened to the wonderful young woman he went to grade school with. She finds herself in the same predicament as the older man had found himself in years before. A faulty exhaust in an old car and a cold February night had done its worst. A sweet serene face would never again see a sun rise or a full moon staring at the world from the heavens.

Parents will always be with us, or so it seems to the little boy. As a man entering middle age, however, the insight of experience and knowledge of the ways of the world hit you full in the face. Their demise having been completed reinforces the idea of but brief interludes of night and day and conscious and unconsciousness. They are gone but still with you in thought; their final resting place.

All of us will experience the feeling of loss; a loss of parents, brothers, friends and others who have touched our lives. There must be more to learn than this feeling of loss. We must learn that the sliver of time we inhabit our small planet is priceless beyond our wildest dreams; that the faint sense of being and knowledge that we possess can't be measured in years, but only in accomplishment. In the movie 'Braveheart', William Wallace asks his countrymen what they would do without freedom. Would they give all the remaining years of their lives for just one chance, ONE CHANCE, to defend their freedom in battle? Their answer was clear. We are free men and will always be so. We must defend our freedom and our time we have on this earth. We must be responsible for our own lives and fortunes. We must not be patient to wait for others to provide us with well being.

Stand up America and live for this day; your day of freedom before the light is extinguished and the future is only memories.