Brought to You Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue

This blog is coming to you from a place of intense anger and outrage from some of the things I have read in the past 24 hours about the death of Osama Bin Laden. I appologize for any offense taken from the language used in this blog, but in no way will I appologize for any offense taken from the actual content. This is my blog...an emotional outlet for MY ideas...if you don't agree, get over it and above all DO NOT comment on what I say because you are sure as hell not going to change my mind. Hopefully this will provide the emotional outlet I need at the moment so that I do not implode. Here goes...

I am not a Republican. I am not a Democrat. I am, however, an American. Osama Bin Laden was killed yesterday. This brings me great joy. Am I joyous because I love killing, violence, and destruction? No...I am joyous because justice has finally been served for the families of the 2, 977 people killed in the 9/11 attacks (sorry, I left out the hijackers, that's just the bitch that I am). Those families were all robbed and forever shaken on that day and they lost things (people, sanity, and sense of security) that they will never get back. I am hoping that yesterday's victory will help them to feel that some kind of justice has been served. It will never bring back loved ones or what they lost that day, but it's something. I'm not even talking in depth about the people who watched the towers fall, the pentagon burn, or Flight 93 crash. Those images will stay with the witnesses of 9/11's destruction for the rest of their lives. When they close their eyes, I'm sure they see the horror of that day.

I am from the Washington, DC area. My mother is a government employee. I felt the fear and the pain when I didn't know exactly where she was or even if she was still alive. I was scared for her, but fear was the only real thing that I experienced that day. I didn't experience personal loss and I did not personally witness any of the actual destruction. So many Americans did and I can only imagine what they went through then and are still going through now.

So, am I happy that Bin Laden is dead? Hell yes! Im not a violent person and I don't always believe in the death penalty, but for this crazy bastard, I'm glad he's gone. I'm not saying that we as a country are in any way in the clear, but we accomplished something huge yesterday, and I am so happy for those who were touched in any way by the 9/11 attacks and our military. OH LORD! Don't even get me started on the military!!!! Countless men and women risk their lives EVERYDAY for our saftety! They fight so we can complain about school being too hard or, God forbid, Justin Beiber's new haircut. I don't know about you, but when I think about the sacrifice that the men and women of our military make, the mediocre grade I got on a Cognitive Psychology test just doesn't seem to matter so much anymore.

So, about the Anti-American, lets all be friends, hug puppies, smoke weed, and look at rainbows statuses that I have seen in the last 24 hours. Cool! You don't like America and want to complain about how violent and horrible we are? Get the hell out! Dear sweet goodness! Hey, I like puppies and rainbows too, but GUESS WHAT?! It can't be puppies and rainbows all the time. And the whole reason that we get to enjoy puppies and rainbows is because of our military!

Please do not take away from the amazing accomplishment that MY country made yesterday. Please don't take away from the justice that 2, 977 people and their families received yesterday. And if you have anything anti-american to say to me today, move the hell on. I may be softspoken any other day, but today, I will lose my composure and reduce you to tears with my words. Thanks for playing.

Again, negative comments will be deleted, not only on my blog, but from my memory as well. Thanks.

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.  ~Elmer Davis

So Americans understand the costs of war. Yet as a country, we will never tolerate our security being threatened, nor stand idly by when our people have been killed. We will be relentless in defense of our citizens and our friends and allies. We will be true to the values that make us who we are ~ Barack Obama

Friendship

As February is a time to think about the love you have in your life, I was struck the other day by the meaning of friendship.  This year I spent Valentine’s Day with some amazing people who I’m very lucky to have in my life and while none of those people are the loves of my life, at least one of them is my soul mate in another way.   She’s a great friend, one of the all time best and what I would do without her, I do not know.

Lately I’ve been having a hard time with the word “friend”.  I’ve been let down and disappointed by my fair share of “friends” in my time and I was thinking about the evolution of the friendships I’ve had throughout my life.  I of course had friends when I was very young, but they were the kind of friends who I played Barbies with.  In my young head we had a connection, but it wasn’t real.  They were the people who kept me busy when I had nothing else to do. 

In Junior High and the early part of High School, I again had friends, but many of them proved to be people that I most definitely can and do live without.  It wasn’t until about junior year of High School that I began meeting people who became real friends to me.  Some of those people, I don’t believe I will ever be able to live without.  As I entered college, I kept in touch with these people and they made my life bearable.  For those of you who know me, you know that my freshman year of college was less than bearable at times.  I am still extremely close with these people today.  I also met some wonderful people in college that I can’t see myself ever drifting away from.  I just hope that they feel the same way.

There are at least five people in this world that know every mundane detail of my life.  I have let them all into my soul for reasons that any of you would know immediately if you met them.  I am proud to call three of them my roommates and they are people that I absolutely believe will be lifelong friends of mine.  These five people, however, possess the qualities that I believe are required to be a friend.  These qualities have only become apparent to me in the last few years and I think that if it had not been for the various bad friends that I have had I would not be able to appreciate the good ones.  So for that reason I am eternally grateful to all the people who have let me down and stomped on my emotions.

The people mentioned above that I have let in completely are trustworthy, fun, caring, but above all they listen.  I don’t know where I would be without their shoulders to cry on.  The most important quality that these people possess is that they are all willing to put the needs of those around them before their own.  I have absolutely no doubt that I could call any of these five people right now due to something as trivial as a bad dye job and they would travel the many miles between us simply because I needed them.  As trivial as my problems might be, the only important factor is that I need them and I have no doubt that they would be there. 

These five people that I have singled out are not my only friends, they just happen to be the ones that I have really let in.  I have so many more wonderful people in my life that I am so grateful to have.  I hope that I am as good of a friend to these people as they are to me.  I want to believe that I am.  I try so hard, because I know how valuable and necessary it is to have a great friend in your life. 

I’m glad that I have kept the friends that I have and burned the bridges between me and those that I don’t deem worthy of my time.  That may sound harsh, but I am at a point in my life where I am happy and it is largely due to those that I have chosen to surround myself with.  I thank God everyday for these people and I hope that they never leave my side.  For now I will continue to be a good friend and while I may meet people who will take advantage of me and let me down, I will know that at any point I may meet someone who will change my life for the better.

I’m new to this blog thing, but I’m going to try to make it a habit to end each entry with a quote.  I couldn’t decide on one for this entry, so I’m going to leave you with two:

"The only way to have a friend is to be one."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."
~ Dale Carnegie