They Say A Picture is Worth A 1000 Words... (posted 5-18-07)

I promise I'm not trying to make my blog one of politics and controversy, though it seems that is what I tend to blog about most. Sometimes things just grab me and they have to be shared.

This amazing picture has drawn a lot of comments from readers of the Nashville paper, The Tennessean.

See Jay's letter below.

Dear Tennessean:

The Tennessean's April 5 photograph of young Christian Golczynski accepting the American flag from Marine Lt. Col. Ric Thompson is one of the most moving and emotion provoking images I have ever seen.

My wife and I attended funeral services for Christian's father, Staff Sergeant Marcus Golczynski, on April 4, along with our six year-old son, dozens of Marines, and several hundred others who came to pay tribute to this fallen hero.

As one would expect, many of your readers were touched by this incredible picture. Staff Sergeant Golczynski had previously served one full tour in Iraq . Shortly before his death on March 27 he wrote to his family that he had volunteered to do this a second time due to our deep desire to finish the job we started. In his letter he said, "We fight and sometimes die so that our families don't have to." Tragically, Staff Sergeant Golczynski had only two weeks remaining on his second tour. We look at the photograph of Christian every day. It is displayed prominently in our home. Our hearts ache for Christian and for all those who have lost loved ones in this controversial conflict.

Our nation is at a historical crossroads. Do we call an end to the struggle in Iraq or press on? Staff Sergeant Golczynski eloquently told his son how he felt about not giving up. Perhaps there is a lesson for all of us in this man's life and the choices he made. He was undeniably a man of tremendous courage and conviction. America must now choose whether to complete the job.

When looking at the face of Christian Golczynski I am reminded that doing what is right is not always easy and doing what is easy is not always right. Christian's dad knew that too.

James Drescher

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Now I know that plenty of you are not in favor of our Great President... and I hope that my standing behind him and what he stands for doesn't "ruin our friendship". We all have a right to our own thoughts and feelings, that's why we all have so much fun together - we're a wonderfully diverse group of people at Untamed who all make up a beautiful quilt of love. We share a love of our kids, each other, a craft and life. Our diversity is what makes us interesting and creates the lovely quilt we call The Untamed Scrapper.

It is at moments like these, when I read articles like this and see photos like the one above, I am reminded of where I live, why I live here and how much I love my country. I am so proud to be called an American. I'm proud of George Dubya, our troops and every other American who stands by ready to "finish the job".

We can thank Osama Bin Laden, Hitler, Sadaam Hussein and every other Monster who has ever attacked any human's right to live and live free from fear of repression of any kind for "the job" we're doing right now.

We are right, we are free, we are American....