Dear Editor, I love my country. I may not love everything about my country, but I know that it will always be there to protect my freedom, as well as the freedom of every other American citizen.
I ask myself, “What did I do to deserve this freedom”?
The answer is nothing. I did nothing to ensure our right to live in a free society, one where both men and women have the ability to live their lives however they see fit.
I did nothing to protect my country from enemies foreign and domestic.
I have done nothing because I have not been called to protect my country. The freedom that all Americans share has been a gift. It is a gift from the thousands of Americans who have given their lives for one purpose, the freedom of The United States of America. It is a gift that I, if called to do so, would defend with my life.
In Tuesday’s Helmsman, Renee Odeh asked a sampling of students if they were willing to serve in the military to defend America against terrorism.
The majority of responses were apathetic, at best. One student going as far as to say that “I’d go to jail before I went to the Army.”
While I may not agree with him, I hold dear the fact that he has the right to speak his mind.
My sincere wish is that University of Memphis students realize that this and other rights are ours only because of the men and women who have given their lives to protect them.
As Martin Luther King Jr. said: “If a man has not found something worth dying for, he is not fit to live.”
Nicholas Lamey
Senior
Exercise and sports science
