Community Bank held its annual Veterans Day breakfast in support of America’s military heroes on Veterans Day, and it was well attended by the Delta’s military locals.
Once again Josh Henderson of Inverness was on hand to share some of his thoughts and convictions with the soldiers.
Henderson, who has participated in several military deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan over the years, said it was an honor to be invited back to the event to share his experiences. “I think it’s up to us veterans to carry on, pass our knowledge down to the next generation and let them know exactly what we fought for and what we’ll continue to fight for,” Henderson said.
Taking a detour from talking about his personal participation in the infantry, Marines and MARSOC, Henderson said he wanted to talk more about why the U.S. has a presence on foreign soil and, “What we fight for, what’s worth defending,” he said. And he summed it up in two words. “It’s freedom.”
Henderson referenced and extolled the many freedoms that people have as American citizens, freedom of speech, religion and expression just to name a few, and contrasted that to what he has witnessed in other countries and by comparison, “It’s mayhem on a degree that you can’t even describe, other people in other parts of the world don’t live this way,” he said.
Henderson told his audience that the dynamics of the psychology in those countries is to make the person feel small and fearful. “You don’t have freedom to pray to the God that you choose, you don’t have freedom to speak out against political figures or the government in any capacity. If you do, you and your entire family will be rounded up in the middle of the night and executed or sent to a prison camp,” he said.
He persisted in his dissimilarity of the two different philosophies, expressed his gratefulness for the freedom of every American to choose his or her own life path and stated emphatically, “That’s what separates us from them, that’s what separates us from the rest of the world,” he said.
He concluded his remarks by reminding the audience of how good they have it in the United States. “You need to wake up every day and just thank God that you were born in this country, but for all this freedom it comes with a price tag and that price tag comes in the form of men and women shedding their blood on foreign soils in defense of this great nation,” Henderson said.
“We get to live how we live because people are willing to sacrifice their lives. So next time you want to thank a veteran, don’t just say thank you for your service, get out there and do something about what we’re fighting for.” He specifically mentioned the freedom a person has to vote for the candidate of his or her choice.
