Friday, May 30, 2008

Having a bad day? Check this out.

Two stories this week caught my eye. The first offers a dramatic picture of a United States Marine ducking for cover as an enemy bullet misses him by maybe an inch. I don’t have rights to the picture so here’s a link to the article on FOXNews.com. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356574,00.html

The picture was taken in Afghanistan. It will be one of those pictures that will live on for awhile. It’s definitely a picture worth a million words.

The other story was on the front page of the Denver Post. Huge crowds lined up along the streets of Loveland, Colo to say goodbye to a local soldier killed in Afghanistan. All were waving flags, saluting or both. Again, I don’t have rights to the pictures but here’s the link to that story. Bravo to the people of Loveland. http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_9315743

I hope you get the chance to read both stories, see the pictures and feel the emotions that both generate.

Since Memorial Day was earlier this week, let’s remember this week to never forget the sacrifices others are making for our freedom. Regardless of your opinions of the war, hundreds of thousand of brave men and women volunteered for this job. They’re fighting to protect us all.

So, if the workload at the office seems a bit heavy, maybe traffic was bad on the way to work and you’re feeling a bit put out by it all, check out the picture of the Marine in Afghanistan or the folks lined up in Loveland to salute a fallen hero and hopefully it will put things in perspective for you. It sure did for me.

Our staff supports a young soldier stationed in southern Baghdad. We got him a laptop with a webcam so he can keep in touch with his family and our employees send out regular packages of goodies ranging from sweets to wet wipes.

His response is generally simple: thanks for remembering, thanks for caring. His messages are usually short; he has to get back to the job of defending our freedom often while he mourns the loss of fallen comrades.

But here’s a direct quote from a recent e-mail that caught all of our attention, and brought a tear to our eyes:

“Things are starting to get worse around here and a lot more attacks on coalition forces so kind of scary but we should be okay as long as I make it till August so I can see my baby boy born.”

Let’s honor and remember them each and every day.


-John
John W. Scherer
John W. Scherer, CEO & founder, Video Professor, Inc.
Contact me at ceo@videoprofessor.com