Tag Archives: freedom

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Leaders STAND for something ~ When do YOU STAND?

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Anne Frank Huis IMG_0264

Last week my husband and I vacationed in Amsterdam.  During our visit there we had the opportunity to visit the Anne Frank House.  I’ve seen the movie, read books about this horrible time in history and visited Holocaust Museums, but I’d never actually read her diary.

‘En route to Amsterdam I opened her diary and read details that I’ve missed before…

Jood Star - Worn by Jews duruing WWII

  • “Jews must wear a yellow star.
  • Jews must hand in their bicycles.
  • Jews are banned from trains and are forbidden to drive.
  • Jews are only allowed to do their shopping between three and five o’clock and then only in shops which bear the placard “Jewish shop.”
  • Jews must be indoors by eight o’clock
  • and cannot even sit in their own gardens after that hour.
  • Jews are forbidden to visit theaters, cinemas, and other places of entertainment.
  • Jews may not take part in public sports. 
  • Swimming baths, tennis courts, hockey fields and other sports grounds are all prohibited to them.
  • Jews may not visit Christians.
  • Jews must go to Jewish schools, and many more restrictions of a similar kind.”

As I tried to imagine Anne’s life at age 13, I immediately thought of my 13-year-old niece and my 13-year-old neighbor.  And I felt my throat tighten, my eyes mist and my mind quickly trying to seal off those thoughts.

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Veterans: Willing To Exchange Our Lives For YOUR Freedom

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A Veteran, whether active duty, discharged, retired, or reserve, is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to The United States of America, for an amount up to and including his or her own life. Unknown

This Saturday is Armed Forces Day.  In honor of the men and women that have written a blank check for their lives in exchange for our freedom I asked several friends to help us understand their choice…  Adonis Phillips, Joseph Pullen, David Groce and LaDine Roth Cravotta are Veterans, Cathy Herring is a mother of a Veteran.

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Broken? You Can’t Have an Omelet Without First Breaking the Eggs

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Oliver TveitMy Grandfather was a WWII Battle of the Bulge Veteran and although his nature was to accept whatever life handed him and to move on, the memories of the brokenness and devastation that the war created left a shadow of questions that haunted him.

Broken Egg

For years he did his best to cope, while raising a large family and tending to a farm.  When his youngest grandchildren started asking about the war he found some healing by sharing stories with family and fellow veterans, but the questions themselves remained.

In 2004, 60 years after the battle he accompanied a number of veterans back to those battlefields. Considering the devastation of the homes, the cities and the lives that were directly impacted by the battles, grandpa was not sure what kind of a welcome they would receive.  Much to his surprise, everywhere they went they were treated as heroes!