Last Wednesday I was traveling with my wife, my son, and my brother-in-law to a rural area of Tennessee for Thanksgiving. The winding back roads through a handful of small ‘mountain towns’ (coupled with a little John Denver on the iPod), set the stage for the perfect “take me home, country roads” pilgrimage to a few days far removed from our typical lives…

“Almost heaven West Virginia…Blue Ridge Mountains…Shenandoah River. Life is old there…Older than the trees…Younger than the mountains…Growin’ like a breeze.”

The trip had gone according to schedule (despite a late start), and the journey had been filled with some much needed ‘catching up’ with Jenny’s brother. The conversations were lighthearted, and I gathered that each of us was looking forward to the opportunity to escape the ‘heaviness’ that so often accompanies the average week…

“Country roads take me home…To the place where I belong: West Virginia mountain momma…Take me home country roads.”

I enjoyed listening to Charlie and Jenny reminisce about similar trips up those same winding roads to visit family many years before. At some point, one of them remarked that “not much had changed” along the roadside in those little towns. It was almost as if they seemed untouched by the passage of time. Life must be so much simpler for those folks I thought…

“All my memories gathered ’round her…Miner’s lady stranger to blue water. Dark and dusty painted on the sky…Misty taste of moonshine…Teardrop in my eye.”

Then, abruptly, it was all interrupted by the dark reality of life and the world in which we live. At some point late in the trip, I turned off John Denver…and turned on the satellite radio for an update on the news…

A series of coordinated terrorist attacks were being carried out by radical militants in Mumbai, India, while FOX and CNN relayed live reports of the chilling details. Over the next few days I was glued to the television and internet, dialed in to my typical run-of-the-mill “Breaking News” mindset, forgetting the serenity I had longed for.

Sparing the unnecessary details, the terrorists claimed the lives of at least 172 innocent individuals, proving all too vividly that the threat of global terrorism is not to be tucked away in our short-term memory.

And while here in the United States the images of 9/11 seems to be the “distant past,” and many have no recollection of London and Madrid, it is painfully obvious that National Security should still be at the very top of our priority list…not the economy, not healthcare, not taxes, and most certainly not which party has ‘control’ in Washington.

It’s still a very dangerous world in which we live, and that fact isn’t going to change any time soon. The economy, healthcare, taxes, and the other issues will ultimately balance themselves out over time. But the threats to our ideals, our way of life, and our security require greater attention…and greater vigilance. And as much as we’d like to casually forget these facts, to relax our defenses and pretend that all is ‘right’ in the world around us, we can’t afford to believe that anything has changed along these winding and treacherous roads that we continue to travel daily…   

“Country roads, take me home…To the place where I belong: West Virginia, mountain momma…Take me home, country roads.”

“I hear her voice, in the mornin’ hour she calls me…Radio reminds me of my home far away…And driving down the road I get a feeling…I should have been home yesterday, yesterday…”

Even when things may seem unpleasant to look at, Liberty must stand vigilant...