Chase Shustack

You know what this country was built on?

Sacrifice.

Genuine, selfless, all-American willingness to give up everything to make sure the people you love, the country you love, get a better future.

Sacrifice has been in America's blood for as long as it's been around.

before even the founding fathers drafted the constitution and declared us the greatest country on earth.

The Indians, they sacrificed.

So did the pilgrims when they landed here in the 1600s.

The pilgrims told all kinds of stories.

Pits full of skeletons about 20 feet deep and 10 feet across.

Apache legends about throwing pregnant women off cliffs.

Hell, Lewis and Clark wrote to Jefferson that there were tribes so depraved they mounted the hearts of boys on spikes so their maize could grow better.

Of course, we thought we were better men than them at the time.

We were advanced, intelligent people.

but there was only so much even we could do.

You can't just stake your claim in a country like this without showing a little bit of appreciation.

Some might even call it showing respect, tipping your hat sort to speak.

The Indians might have been a bunch of god awful savages, but they understood the land better than us at the time.

He paused for a moment, seeming to consider something.

He turned back to me and pulled a cigarette from his chest pocket.

He offered me one, but he didn't take it.