Our Favorite 1 Percent
Think of the U.S. military as the Other 1%
Keturah is back home. Actually she is in Fort Dix New Jersey, not too far away from us, but much further away from the harm we only read about in between the latest Lindsey Lohan news.
Time Magazine’s November 21st edition has an article on the military costs of this war in which it highlights this in “The Other 1%” “Never has the U.S. public been so separate, so removed from the people it pays to protect it. Over the past generation, the world’s lone superpower has created_and grown accustomed to a permanent military caste, increasingly disconnected from U.S. society, waging decade long wars in its name. Think of the U.S. military as the Other 1%, some 2.4 million troops have fought in and around Afghanistan and Iraq since 9/11, exactly 1% of the 240 million Americans over 18. If you remove those who are unlikely to serve because they are too fat or too criminal or in college, only 15% of Americans ages 17-24 are eligible to sign up.”
Keturah has proven herself as one of that other 1%. She went through rigorous mental, physical, psychological and spiritual conditioning. She would write and call us from her base and was frequently interrupted by shouts of ‘incoming’ at which time her voice would and face would disappear from the computer screen or telephone. She would call at odd hours of the night, from a barracks that was pitch black as our mid daytime was her early morning hours. She would whisper. She would assure us she was doing well. She would tell me of her reading her Bible devotions My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. She would send text messages of how she missed and loved us. Our favorite 1 percent is back home and we will soon be reunited as a family with her.
Time magazine goes on to say much of our thanks we give them, free meals at restaurants, front of the line boarding on airlines is a true thank you. That is ‘thank you for doing what I am afraid to or unwilling to commit myself to do.’
Welcome home PFC Keturah Ruth Johnson. We thank God for her protection. We pray for the remaining portion of the valiant 1%.