We take so much for granted

This has been on my mind for a few days:
On Friday, I attended an open house in honor of a 22-year-old man returning from his second tour of Iraq. I know from the host that this young man lost some of his buddies to IEDs and endured a lot of physical hardships over there. I kept thinking about how so many people his age are worrying about "bombing a test" in college, while he and others like him were over there worried about real bombs....

THEN, on Sunday, I took one of our pastors to lunch. She just returned from spending 2 weeks in Vietnam. She took over a group of American Veterans who had served in the conflict, but had never been back. They were escorted on the tour by two Methodist missionaries working in the country. Christianity is illegal there and they had to be very careful. They met with several "home churches" during their tour and were told to not make much noise and to not stay in one place too long, so as to avoid drawing attention to themselves (and the Christian church). She told me that she was very worried because on their last day in the country, they became aware that they were being "observed". The tour group left without incident (as she pointed out, the last thing the Vietnamese government wants is an international incident involving Americans.) However, she has been unable to contact the missionary team in the week since they left and she was genuinely worried about their safety.

Both of these encounters just make me realize how much we take for granted. Our freedoms. Our peaceful daily existence. Even the opinions that are expressed on the forums on this web site are enough to get you arrested in some countries.

We are so damn lucky to be Americans. (and Canadians and Australians and Western Europeans).

To those of you who have served (and are serving) in the military: THANK YOU!