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On this Veteran's Day, I'm thankful for all who have served the country I love. I'm grateful for the opportunity to have been a U.S. Air Force wife, to see the military brotherhood up close and personal, and to learn about patriotism. I had a history professor tell us that to be a patriot means to love this country warts and all...to know its history, the good and the bad, and to still be willing to defend our constitution, as the servicemembers' oath says, "against all enemies, foreign and domestic." I live and work with recent immigrants who came to the United States because of the opportunities and the chance to live free, away from the repressive societies they grew up in. I know America isn't perfect, and we have a lot of enemies, but I wouldn't live anywhere else. "We have a republic, if we can keep it," said Benjamin Franklin. Praying we can.

CREDITS: Anita Designs Best of Times (pocket card); Rebecca McMeen Sweet Solstice (clouds-blended); Joyce Paul's July Getaway (statue); Rachel Etrog's Wild and Free (word strip-blended); Anna Aspnes' Ecstatic (edge overlay); Font-Teeshirt