Yesterday I was sadly reminded that words are just words. I was reminded freedom is made possible not by words but by deeds, not by men who are simply willing to say but by men who are willing to do and to do at all costs.
These observations were not random, they were an inescapable reality pointed out in a tweet by Erick Brockway. The tweet referenced a post on the loss of 1LT Christopher S. Goeke who died last month in Kandahar City, Afghanistan, along with Staff Sgt. Christopher T. Stout, 34, of Worthville, Ky., and Staff Sgt. Sheldon L. Tate, 27, of Hinesville, Ga.
The post ended with this quote, a quote of mere words, but a quote listed as the favorite of LT Christopher S. Goeke, a doer of deeds:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” ~ Teddy Roosevelt
Words of Freedom 