A Gift that I will never forget

I was given a gift when I was born, an heirloom.

It was given to me by my parents, they were given it by my grandfathers, and I will make sure my children get it, too.

It is this:
That an entire generation of young people will never again be called away to foreign lands to be wholesale slaughtered to ransom the failures of their governments.

This gift has been cracked & repaired; torn & patched; dropped, lost, picked up and found many times in my life, but it has never shattered. Someone else has always been there to fix it.

This gift requires constant vigilance, care, and repair, and there are people I know and see every day, people I work with, people I worship with, people I argue with, people that I love, who have sworn that when this gift cracks, tears, falls, or is lost, that they will lay down their lives to repair it.

They have promised to give their lives to protect my heirloom gift.

And I promise never to forget that.