A friend of ours recently sent me a link to an article about Medal of Honor winner, Sgt. Dakota Meyer. The article wasn't about winning a medal. It was about not taking special favors that are often bestowed on the most famous among us.
Basically, Sgt. Meyer missed a deadline for applying for a job. He missed it because he was in the process of receiving his Medal of Honor from President Barack Obama. His lawyer asked a judge to extend the deadline for all of those applying, not just for his client. The judge declined but did extend the deadline for Meyer. The response:
The lawyer, Keith Sullivan, says Meyer doesn't want to be a "one-person exception" to the deadline and won't apply.
There will be people who believe Sgt. Meyer is crazy and should have just taken the extension and run with it. But they will miss the point of my writing this diary as well.
There are men and women in uniform who truly believe in doing what is best, not for themselves, but for their nation. In doing what is right. Sgt. Meyer's refusal to accept a special favor is an example of that behavior.
Sgt. Meyer also received his Medal of Honor by questioning the decision of a higher authority:
In 2009, Meyer and another Marine disobeyed a direct order to stay clear of a firefight in which fellow Marines and Afghan troops were pinned down. The Marines made multiple forays into the kill zone of the battle to rescue the Afghans and the Marines.
We need more Americans to be like Meyer - to stop looking out only for themselves and to realize that their day to day decisions make a difference to other people. On the day that Meyer earned his Medal of Honor, he was not alone. He was joined by Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez and Capt. Ademola Fabayo, both who were awarded the Navy Cross, the second most prestigious valor award for a Marine. These Marines, and the untold stories of hundreds, if not thousands of other service members, should serve to guide us in our daily lives. We should realize that when one of us stands strong, others will come stand by our side.
We should all strive to do the right thing, even when it means bucking the system.