I'm only doing my job

I get asked a lot of times why I do what I do. This time, I turned the question around and asked a National Guardsman why he does what he does.

"I do it to help."
"Why?"
"Because I can, to give back." and then the real answer came out. He was compelled to do it. It came from inside of him, a tug he felt for a long time before he joined the National Guards. It's what is behind the decision to do anything for other people no matter what place we take doing what is needed.

From the people going to work for charities, determined to make the lives of strangers better at the same time they end up making less money because it's a charity.

The emergency responder willing to face any kind of weather condition, rush into where everyone else is running away from, just to be able to make a difference in someone else's life and maybe save a life.

The firefighter, the police officer, the men and women in our military, all the way down to the next door neighbor always ready to show up when you need some help with something. All of them want to make a difference in this world. Each one called to their own path of getting to their own place in this country. Everyday people willing to risk it all and when the job is done, they end up having to still take out the trash, clean their bathrooms and figure out what to have for dinner. You can just imagine them standing in their kitchen with the usual family talk. "What did you do today?" "I got a cup of coffee, saved a life and then picked up pizza." We forget they have the same kind of routines the rest of us do, the same kind of chores to do and problems to face, but they are playing real life heroes everyday as well.

I do what I do because I can but above that, because I know what a real hero looks like, sounds like and have heard more than a thousand times to not address any of them as a hero because they turn it around and say "I'm only doing my job" and they want it to be seen only that way. They don't want us to treat them any differently but what they don't see is that they are so different from the rest of us. We pretty much take care of our own problems, in our own lives but they do all that and usually after they've taken care of the rest of us.

God compelled me to do this but I have not risked my life to do it and that is the biggest difference of all. They risk their lives everyday so the least we can do is to help them recover from what they have to go thru in order to do it. I'm only doing a small part. When I look on the net about what others are doing across the country, I am amazed and humbled by it.

The motorcycle clubs showing up to honor the return of soldiers or for a funeral of a fallen soldier.
The elderly groups showing up at airports to send off more being deployed as well as welcome others back home.
The veterans taking charge of service groups to help other veterans.
The people working in shelters so that one less veteran will sleep out in the cold another night.
The people volunteering to give out hot meals, not just during Thanksgiving or Christmas, but everyday of the year when no one else is looking, no media showing up to take pictures.
Moms and Dads of fallen soldiers showing up in Washington to testify constantly amaze me because while they could just focus on their own loss, they think of others and try to make a difference to strangers' children.

This nation is filled with quiet heroes but you don't read about them all the time or see a local news report about what they are doing enough. The terrible things people do get a lot more attention. The truth is, there are so many more doing good things for others than there are trying to hurt, take away from or take advantage of, that there would just not be enough hours in the day to report about all that is being done for the greater good than the acts committed by the selfish. Take heart that all is still well in this country, even with the problems all of us have, because even with those problems all of us have, there are real heroes taking on our burdens on top of their own. That's what's great about this country and for this we are all truly blessed.