Election Day and Tears of Joy and Pride!

Chrenkoff also provides these letters that will tingle your spine and bring tears to your eyes.:

5:40pm From a sometime Chrenkoff correspondent, Haider Ajina:

"I just called my father in Baghdad to see if he and the rest of my Iraqi family over there have voted yet. He said we were all just heading out the door, but we will wait and talk to you (chuckling). I heard a strength and joy in his voice and could hear the rest of my relatives in the back ground. It sounded like a family reunion. My 84 year old Iraqi Grandmother will be voting for the first time in her life. My father (a naturalized U.S. Citizen) said we are all getting ready to go vote in a school near by. This school was just being built when I left Iraq in the late 70's. I know where it is and I can picture my father, uncles aunties and cousins along with the rest of the family walking through my old neighborhood to that school and vote. My father said 'For the first time in my life I voted in the U.S. and now I can vote in Iraq. We want our voices to count, we want to decide our future and we want the world to know we have a voice in our future and in our government, this will give the Iraqi government true legitimacy, just like in America'.

"I can now dream of the day when I can take my family to meet my extended family and the places were I played and grew up. They will also see what our men and women in our military fought for.

"To all the men and women who have served and serving in Iraq, to all the families of those who have paid the ultimate price to all those who have suffered during their service in Iraq, my family’s and my deepest thanks, gratitude and pride both from the U.S. and Iraq for all the sacrifices, endurance and service for our great country and Iraq and the Iraqis. God bless all of you and keep you safe."

And from a reader Brad Morgan:

"On December 1st my youngest son turned 21 as a US Marine on his second tour in Iraq. On New Year's day he lost both legs and the vision in his right eye to a land mine there.

"I won't pretend that he did this for the Iraqi people. He volunteered and sacrificed for America and its people.

"But a big part of this whole thing is also recognizing that we are protecting America and the entire world by bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq and its people, with the hope that this will also bring the same to the entire region.

"As a father, I am both devastated by my son's loss and the handicaps he will face for the rest of his life and I am incredibly proud of him for what he has done.

"My prayers go out to the people of Iraq and for your future. I want that future to be wonderful --for your own sake and because I don't want my son's sacrifice to have been in vain.

"My son's legs and blood will forever rest in Iraqi soil. I think that gives me the right to say a a few things."

Amen.

Amen and Amen.