I once sat next to a marine. The scarred warrior was looking at a picture of a red headed girl. I asked if she was his, he said yes. He was a force recon grunt coming back from leave. We exchange tales of valor, in which his exploits made my own pale in comparison. Although a seasoned warrior, he said his toughest fight was still ahead of him. When I asked him what it was, he showed me a ring he was going to give it to his love when his tour was over. He said “This uniform changed me, I can feel it pushing her away. I love her more than anything. I want her to not only feel my love, but to also breath it, and live it -always. There’s no fight more important, and a fight that I can stand to lose everything if I fail. I don’t want another day to go by without her by my side”. He then told their story, they were friends since kindergarten and he professed his love for her when they were fourteen, and they became high school sweetheart. Although I didn’t really reply, out of a lack of audacity to show my none masculine side, I was touched. Three month later, I found out the same marine was KIA in Kwost province in Afghanistan three weeks before he was supposed to go home. I can’t help but think that this is a true hero, someone who stands to lose everything and puts his life on the line to defend what we hold for granted every day. Steve Jobs, did he leave behind his vast fortune and lavish lifestyle to fight for the country in which made him rich? The answer is no, however most people worship that rotten fruit symbol more than the cross. His company relish in unfathomable sums of money, profits obtained by exploitation of poor migrant workers in china, working for less than a dollar a day. These are well known fact, yet his death was mourned internationally while the marine who died for his country didn’t even make the six o’clock news.
Get your priority straight America.
