The Cost of Liberty

I awoke in an early morning in Korea reading over the news to find that a friend I worked with at Arlington National Cemetery was killed in Afghanistan. The cost of liberty remains high.

Specialist Louis (Lou) Fastuca was killed in Abdulhamid Kalay in Afghanistan on 5 July when his vehicle was attacked with an IED. He was 24. He was from West Chester Pennsylvania.

He was a great kid. I always loved his sense of humor. He was always in good humor himself and loved to banter around in the office. Truly a great loss.

I ask my readers to keep his family in their prayers. And pray for victory and for peace.

Read more here

Still Celebrating Liberty

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!

God shed his grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!

God mend thine every flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness

Happy 4th of July

The Star Spangled Banner (Verse 4)

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!