My wonderful friend, John L Borling (Major General, United States Air Force, retired) mentioned this whole concept about seven years ago, when I last had dinner with he and his wonderful wife, Myrna.
General Borling is one of the greatest military heroes I've ever known. He was a POW in Vietnam for almost 6 years. He has served his country and his God all over this world.
He emphasized the concept of "service before Self"--even though not many people bought into the idea.
Maybe it's because too many of us want "self BEFORE service."
Both Presidential candidates are talking about change, and service, and how we can make this land that we so dearly love a better place for all the inhabitants.
I'm convinced the only way we can be better than we are is when we decide that "serving" is not just a forgotten past-time of bygone generations.
We need to regain a sense of what it means to 'serve' in this nation. Too many of us have gotten a "free ride" in this nation, and think that we have fulfilled all of our obligations just by paying our taxes, waving our flags (occasionally), and not committing any heinous crimes.
While all of those things are important, I'm convinced that each of us can do more...and we MUST DO MORE.
It's time that we Americans 'get over' the whole melodrama called "it's all about me"--and get back to the business of service. Whether it be the Peace Corps, Americorps, the military services, the local halfway houses, or any other number of organizations, it's time to start 'serving' again.
Both Senator McCain and Senator Obama will do well to emphasize and encourage such activities.
Let's break our addiction to "stuff" and start being the great nation that we have always been--and that we need to be again.
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