~ Lone Butterfly ~: Traitors

I recieved an email from my Dad, one he had sent to many of the people in his office. My father's office building has a small cemetary on it's property (one of those very old ones that cannot be moved) and he reflected on one of the gravesite. I asked his permission to share it - and I hope it helps everyone get into the Fourth of July frame of mind:

OK ... Please bear with me here if I get a bit philosophical as it is nearing Independence Day ....

We call them Patriots. They were the originals giants of our country. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hancock, Franklin, Revere. We learned all of their names and their actions when we were in school.

The English called them traitors.

And if England had won the Revolutionary War each of them would have been hanged and we would be talking about "our" queen.

The fact is that these people did something remarkable. They saw the need for an entirely new nation and they were willing to give anything ... including their lives ... to make that nation possible.

But I want to mention the other "traitors" ... the more than 200,000 farmers, shop owners, ministers and clerks ... who took to the battlefield to fight the greatest army in the world. There were young boys and there were old men ... all wanting to help start a new nation.

I believe that Benjamin Bridge was one of these young men. He was lucky. He survived the war and then he decided to move west to the frontier to help this new, young nation grow.

Benjamin Bridge moved to Ohio ... and today he is buried about 100 yards from my office. As you get ready for this holiday weekend, I urge you to remember those unsung heroes who got us to this point. You might even consider a walk out to the cemetery behind our office building to pay tribute to one of those heroes. A medallion with "1776" is at his grave ....... He, too, was a Patriot.