I Am So Very Proud of You 

You may be one of the most despised and hated group of people on the face of the earth, but I am so very proud of you

You who defied the odds and remained in school and graduated, when so many others “dropped out.” I am so very proud of you.

If you were one of those who did drop out, but then you struggled and pursued your G.E.D. and successfully completed it, I am so very proud of you

You may not have gone to college, you had to support yourself, so you found a job, any job which paid minimum wage, to provide for yourself and those you loved, I am so very proud of you.

You met a young women, and you married her; you could have, ‘lived together,’ but you chose to risk it all and marry this women, I am so very proud of you

Together you struggled, working to care for the children that came of the love you shared, I am so very proud of you

You face the challenges every married couple face, but choose to remain together through God’s mercy and with good council and yes, poor council as well, you made it, your lives together work, I am so very proud of you

When others sold drugs, used drugs and became a scourge to your own community, you stood against the ‘grain’ to build not only your family, but a community as well, I am so very proud of you

You took jobs, others didn’t want or refuse to do, because it put food on the table; dangerous jobs, in the coal mines, steel mills, railroad cars, often low paying jobs; When winter came and you could no longer do street and road construction, you cleaned junk from houses of those who were ‘better-off’ than yourself, just to keep food on the table for your children and those who weren’t yours as well, I am so very proud of you

It hurt your pride, but you refuse to steal, or become a part of the ‘criminal-element,’ even as you were viewed with suspicious eyes and thoughts, others. You fought in every war this county faced, whether you wanted to or not. You didn’t run for the boarder, or head off to college to avoid the draft; you signed up and fought and helped win the battle for freedom in the lives of others in faraway lands. Even as you were denied those same freedoms here at home, I am so very proud of you

You dared to stand as a man, to fight for the rights of yourself and others against laws and tyranny with our women and those who didn’t look like us, for freedom guaranteed in the constitution and the bill of rights, I am so very proud of you

When there were no jobs, you created legal means to provide for your family, long before the welfare system came into being, I am so very proud of you

When opportunities became available you ‘stepped up,’ and made the best of it you could. There were failures, but many more of you succeed then they (and are) were given credit for, I am so very proud of you

You fought for what you have; no one ‘gave you’ much of anything. You found something that was abandoned, tossed away or considered junk; you repaired it and brought it home, with a pride as if you purchased it from the best store in town. I am so very proud of you

When others left the inner cities, you and your family moved into it, and created a community. You fought drug dealers and gangs to make it a safe place, even while others blamed you for was happening around you. I am so very proud of you

You know who you are!!!

T. A. Burns