PATRIOT PAGE

This past Memorial Day I took a moment to reflect, in solemn sorrow, on a lost loved one. I remember her well as an innocent child, taken from me by a gang of low life thieves that used her for their own purposes.

Their purposes were not honorable, but she did not resist, trusting that no one would intentionally harm her or destroy her way of life. She was the epitomy of beauty, innocence and all the admirable qualities that others admire but few have the courage or resolve to gain.

It was not by force of arms that she fell, silent, mortally wounded. Rather it was by slight of hand, trickery and deceit. She wept but I did not hear her, and by the time I realized her peril, she was gone.

I blame myself as I saw the danger but did not raise my hand to defend her. I, too, was fooled by the cowardly bastards and trusted that she would always be protected and served.

But they served no one except themselves, cutting her ever deeper till she bled freely. She didn't die in a blaze of glory like the Valkery that she was but succumbed to her injuries with little more than a whimper or a mournful cry of, "Why?" Her name was Liberty and we will forever pay the price of her passing.