Chance of a lifetime

Today I was invited by a teacher to listen to a presentation being made to her class. The presentation was given by a holocaust survivor.

This strong woman, now in her elder years softly, yet so vividly painted a picture of courage, perserverance, and hope.

Her family hid for four years, always on the run from the Nazis. They trudged through unforgiving weather and terrain, in the face of certain death, to go from one "safe" area to another. Hiding with vermin and experiencing illness. Even while separated at times, the family never gave up hope on survival. Eventually they were all reuinited, thanks to what I believe was an angel used by God.

There I sat in an American classroom, among chidlren of varying backgrounds/cultures, and to realize that I'm not in fear of a soldier walking in and telling me I can't read or that I don't fit the "image" of what is now the preferred race. My students and I can talk freely, argue freely, and I can come and go as I please in life. I can worship the God I want. I can go to work. I can do all of these things FREELY, without thinking or realizing those are my innate rights...I can just do what I please. I don't have to look over my shoulder. Not giving it a single thought.

That, my friends, is why people like Harry Reid and other Democrats scare me. Yeah. The world needs to treat each other better. Yeah. There are people who need things that they don't have. However, we'll have even less if people are afraid to perservere and are too cowardly to take that same "long walk" to ensure a brighter future for our society and our world.

I could see her reliving it. She expressed that she re-feels the fatigue she felt. Her descriptions of prisons were heart wrenching. However, one thing that was always evident in her portrayal of her experiences and the experiences of her immediate family...hope that each other would survive, somehow. Hope that there would be a future without the hate and brutality they experienced. Hope to be free. Sound familiar?