Mona Lisa.

Today is September 11th, 2013; twelve years after America's tragic World Trade Center bombing. It was a Tuesday. Do you remember where you were? What you were doing? I was in junior high, but Mom had stopped at a Discount Tire before she dropped me off at school. I sat there in the waiting room not sure of what I was watching..

I'm sure the people of New York 

felt the same way.

Why am I bringing this up twelve years later? Because I think it's important. If we don't occasionally remember certain things in our history how will we know how to act going forward? While working at Grace, my senior friends shamed me when they discovered the pathetic amount of American history I knew. Now, I understand why. They came from a generation of do-ers. The Great Depression and World War II defined a large part of their lives. They lost loved ones themselves, and watched others lose theirs. Their family fought hard for what they believed in. They gave all they had for our Country, just like our founding fathers did.

I come from a generation that has received the benefits and luxury fought for by former generations. I came into America stretching my arms out wide, and breathing in deep its sweet, free air. I don't know what it's like to lose someone to war. And I have been oblivious to the cost others have paid for my freedom. In school, it was hard for me to even imagine George Washington as a real person. He looked more like the painting of a stranger to me, like the Mona Lisa. Silly me. Stupid me!! I have so much to be grateful for; so much to learn from them...
However, I do know now that with freedom comes with great responsibility.

It is our turn to stand up for what is right; to continue to fight for what our founding fathers brilliantly built from the ground up. We have to, or it will most definitely be taken from us.