Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it. — George Bernard Shaw

The last four days have been filled with family, children, dogs, swimming at the lake, eating way too much (solid) food, riding my motorcycle through the Texas Hill Country, and…well, nearly everything but blogging or sitting in front of a computer.

I hope that each of you has had a wonderful holiday, too. And I hope you’ve taken a few minutes to reflect on the wonderful freedoms that you enjoy as a citizen of this country. And I hope you remember that that freedom was secured by soliders past, and defended today by a new generation of soldiers.

Michelle Malkin reminds us of these never-truer-than-now words from Zell Miller:

Never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of total strangers than the American soldier.

And, our soldiers don’t just give freedom abroad, they preserve it for us here at home.

For it has been said so truthfully that it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press.

It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest.

It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives that protester the freedom he abuses to burn that flag.

The cost of freedom certainly isn’t free. But it’s damned well worth the price.