Sacrifice

Recently I was allowed the opportunity to take a trip to Washington D.C. with another organization that I am involved in.  I have taken several trips to D.C. in the past and the monuments always impress me and blow me away, but this time something different struck me.  On a night tour of the monuments and memorials we had a chance to stop by the Vietnam War Memorial.  If you have never had a chance to see this, it is something that you must do at some point in your life.  This memorial is in a V shape, and it begins 10 inches tall, grows gradually to 10 feet tall, and gradually sizes back down to 10 inches on the far side.  These giant black granite slabs are covered in the names of those who gave their life in this conflict.  It blew me away while touring this how even though the names were so small, and the slabs were so big, the names still filled the slabs completely.  The sheer volume of names was absolutely insane.  So many people laid down their lives for their country and their friends.

Another memorial that we got to see was the World War 2 memorial.  This memorial consists of one pillar representing each of the states in the United States of American and the territories since all of them participated in the war.  Another element of this memorial is a wall of 4,048 stars, and each star represented 100 American service men that died in the war.  Yet another example of the massive number of hero’s who gave the ultimate sacrifice to maintain this countries freedom and liberate other countries from the independence of tyrannical rule. 

As you can see in our history, Americans have always been willing to sacrifice much for causes they believe in.  In our lives we are going to be asked to sacrifice things to achieve.  How much are you willing to give to achieve something that you want?  Are you willing to get up earlier than anyone else to get to the gym and work out?  Are you willing to go over that speech one more time when you are already tired, and it sounds pretty good? Are you willing go that extra mile at work, and do something that isn’t in your job title?  I am by no means asking you to lay down your life, I am simply asking what are you willing to SACRIFCE to achieve something you truly believe in?

Eric Peterson

State Secretary