The Southwest Voice

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting a person that was old enough to be my son, yet in his few years on this Earth, he has done more to be proud of than I might ever do in my life.

This was whille my wife and I were dining with friends at "Cool Hand Luke's" in Santa Maria.  We saw the waiters and waitress' start connecting tables together for a large group.  We were worried that this was going to be one of those loud, roudy bunches of kids or adults that like to come in and disturb everyone.  When the group came in and sat down, they were young and the were a little roudy, but they had very good reason to be.

As it turns out, the table was occupied by the family of a Marine who had just returned from Iraq.  They had all come in to celebrate his return.  Once the word got out that this was why they were there, several people, myself included, went up to meet and shake hands with this "kid" and to tell him that they were proud of him.  All the while he was beaming like he just scored the winning touchdown.

If I had been able to afford it, I would have paid for their entire meal if for no other reason than that of respect for him for being a Marine and for the honor of celebrating his return with his family.

In a past article I wrote a piece about Random Acts of Kindness...  if there are any groups of people that are most deserving of these, it would be our soldiers, all of them.  So I will ask you all one favor.  If you have the means and happen to see a soldier in a restaurant, bar, coffee shop, etc...  buy them lunch, a drink or just walk up and say thanks (unles it is a Marine, then say Sempre Fi! ).  We all owe it to them for all they do for us.  It may not seem it, but they are the ones punching the time clock for all we are free to do as Americans.