Respect

 I stand in quiet awe and reverence

 when I think of those who have gone before.

 Be it on home shores or beaches far away

 About how all had one thing in common that

 bound them as nothing else could.

 I know nothing of heroes

 nor of warriors supreme

 I only know of true men committed

 to a cause to the end.

 The seven hundred who stood against

 the Legion of Rome's best at Masada

 The three hundred who stood against

 the two million at the Thermopylae

 The country that was overrun by

 by Empire after Empire yet still stands

 known to the world as Israel

 The hundred and sixty that stood against

 4500 at Alamo Plaza In San Antonio, Texas

 These were the true “People of Iron”, not because of the training, nor of pride, but of resolve. The resolve of which history is made, not of a need of notoriety, that was the least of all the concerns, but of the need of freedom. No other human need can forge the bond that will solidify the wills of the many into the resolve of one for the betterment of all.

No force on earth can withstand that resolve, and through it ordinary men and women have obtained the persona of hero's though not sought by any of them.

 When their stories are told, you can do nothing but

 stand in quiet awe and reverence.