On my third lap around the park, I decided to sit down and try to console the man. Perhaps he was mourning his wife or a child and the least I could do was sit with him for a spell.
"Sir," I said, sitting on the bench next to him. "Are you OK?"
He turned and looked at me, as if surprised that I even noticed him.
"Young man, I'm in mourning.
"My wife is healthy, and all my children and grandchildren are living happy and healthy lives, but still I mourn."
"A good friend?" I asked, thinking back to how I felt when a few of my friends had passed over the years.
"Oh, I wish it was that simple," he said, laughing bitterly.
"What else is there to mourn this much for?" I thought to myself.
"Son, let me tell you a short story.
"I fought in a war that freed a continent from evil and stopped the wholesale oppression and slaughter of a people only to see much the same thing here a home.
"I watched as a great man marched peacefully in far too many cities to bring equality and freedom to people long held as 'inferior.' In fact, I marched with him when I could, and was there in spirit when I couldn't.
"I worked hard to bring financial security for my family so that they would never know the deprivation we now know as the 'Great Depression.' For us, it was just 'hard times.'
"I've watched as people have come and gone, making unfulfilled promises along the way.
"I've wondered at the technological marvels and medical miracles our society has produced for all mankind - jet fighters and passenger jets, helicopters, prosthetic limbs, diseases cured. All of that brought about by free-thinking, freedom-loving people with a will to break from tradition and convention.
"I watched with fascination as mankind slipped free the bonds of Earth and traveled to the moon and focused their eyes on the stars.
"I watched with amusement as science chases God with intent to destroy Him, and laughed as He wriggled free of their grasp and created more of His wonders for them to study.
"I've seen evil come along on gilded wings, yet be rejected, defeated, when good people took a stand.
"I've seen more good than bad in my days here.
"And yet...." he trailed off, staring off into the distance.
As he had spoken, the tears had dried. Now, they returned full force.
"What?" I asked, spellbound. This man knew how to tell a story. "Why do you cry?"
"I don't weep for myself. I've had a long and mostly happy life.
"I don't cry for my friends, who are more like me than not.
"I don't cry even for you. You're old enough to have fought for the right things. Whether you did or not is immaterial - you should have.
"I weep because that which we have fought so long for, that which we have gained, we are losing! Worse, we are giving them away!
"What has happened to the only nation where the freedom to speak your mind is guaranteed? When did we devolve into a nation of sissies, afraid to hear a viewpoint opposite of our own?
"When did we decide that giving up our own rights was the 'safe' thing to do?
"I weep for the United States of America I used to know out of the fear that my grandchildren will never know what it means to be truly FREE." ~ Hunter
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