Free speech and our legal entitlement to memorialize our thoughts, opinions and our own history as people are fundamental rights guaranteed to United State citizens.   I have recently learned however, even these can be open to interpretation and litigation, and unless you go out of your way with malicious intent, you have a fundamental right to express yourself as you wish and with your own identity.  I am much like other people in that I have taken these rights for granted.  I haven’t given them much thought because I knew they were always there and when I wanted to write, publish or post something I was able.  It is only when those very rights that the Constitution guarantees became the object of another persons obsession, that I started thinking very hard about the importance of them. I was not appreciative of the power of the pen or my fundamental rights as a United States citizen. Now I am and am thankful to be more cognizant of their value.

We all have a right to be who we are.  Our story and our lives are our own.  They are not chattel or property that can be bartered or exchanged.  Each of us has a life that is ours.  Our memories, our stories, our life.  Don’t take for granted those fundamental rights we are afforded by being U.S. citizens and give thanks this Memorial Day for those who fought and gave their lives to ensure us those rights!

Celebrate Memorial Day and God Bless all those who served!