EVERYDAY HERO: CHRIS KYLE

Chris Kyle wasn’t an Ivy League graduate and didn’t come from privilege. He was just a country boy. He played football and baseball and showed cows in Future Farmers of America events. He was a Texas boy who loved the Dallas Cowboys and the Texas Longhorns. He was an All American Kid. An Everyday Hero. If it wasn’t for the movie American Sniper, starring Bradley Cooper, which was released one week ago on Christmas day, most Americans outside the Navy SEALs, U.S. Special Operations, and a whole lot of Texans would probably have never heard of Chris Kyle. It matters not what you think about the United States’ involvement in war in the Middle East, or why you think we have sent American boys and girls to that area. That’s all irrelevant. And, candidly, I couldn’t care less about your attitudes in that regard. What is relevant is that young men and women accept orders to go to hell holes around the globe to give the rest of us the opportunity to say and think whatever we wish. The U.S. Constitution might give us the right to speak our minds, but it is the warrior who preserves that right. Chris Kyle served four tours of duty in Iraq and earned numerous medals and commendations. But those weren’t what motivated him. It was “his boys” that did that. It was protecting his fellow warriors against sadists who have decapitated Americans, who have dragged the bodies of Americans through streets, who have committed atrocities against women and children just to keep them under control through terror, and who would bring their sadism to the United States given half-a-chance, that motivated Kyle and all of those who have served in the military. I have attached an article from D Magazine that will tell you a lot about Chris Kyle, including the fact that he was murdered by a mentally ill former Marine in Texas, after Kyle left the SEALs. Kyle was with the Marine that day to try to help him. That Marine, like all of the men who had served in the military was another one of “his boys.” I encourage you to read the attached article and then go see the movie, American Sniper. After doing both those things, if you are not inspired to do something special for a past or present member of the military to honor Chris Kyle’s memory, then I suspect nothing will ever inspire you to do so.