My great-great-great-great grandfather John See was in winter quarters at Valley Forge with Washington.  When John was only 8 years old his father was killed at the Muddy Creek massacre in Greenbriar Co., Virginia in a conflict with Native Americans.  My great grandfather homesteaded on the eastern plains of Colorado where my grandfather was born in a sod cabin.  My parents were raised on farms in central Iowa and northern Missouri.  Neither had indoor plumbing and my mom did not have electricity.  Neither of my parents were able to finish high school, in fact my dad join the USMC when he was 17 during the Korean Conflict.

 

I finished high school and was lucky enough to be able to put myself through college and graduate school.  My son is a US Army veteran and struggles with PTSD.  He volunteered shortly after 9/11 and was part of our “boots on the ground” in Baghdad, Iraq.  Conflict and struggle are a part of life.  The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it.  We live in a great country.  It’s not perfect and it never will be.  But I can’t imagine living anywhere else.  I’m thankful and proud of the pioneers who went before me.  I’m also encouraged and hopeful for the generations to come.  They are the cornerstones for my reason to “never forget.”