Cpl. Claudio Patino, a 22 year old man from Yorba Linda was serving with the U.S. Marines in the Helmand province in Afghanistan, deployed as part of “Operation Enduring Freedom” when he was killed by small arms fire on June 22.
Friday July 2, was an ordinary busy day in my Yorba Linda world. I was in a hurry to run an errand, pick up my daughter.....when I received a sobering priority check. I was stopped by a motorcycle officer when I approached the intersection of Prospect and Bastanchury. Traffic was held for about 20 minutes while the motorcade lead by the hearse that transported young Claudio’s body to it’s final resting place at the National Cemetery in Riverside. It was an extraordinary and sobering sight, both literally and physically. Claudio’s comrades traveled behind his hearse in a variety of everyday vehicles. Each of them handsomely dressed in their formal uniforms, painfully young and bravely stoic on this sad occasion. I wept as I feared for the safety of these beautiful young men.
Down the street to the West of the intersection was another extraordinary sight. Many of the residents of the Eastern Star Retirement Home were gathered outside the Home with the rest of the crowd, some in wheelchairs, some in walkers, many assisted by staff from the Home, waiving flags and saluting the motorcade as it passed. How awesome, I thought, to see the Great Generation saluting the children of Generation X, as the same agenda of the Great Generation, preserving freedom at home and abroad, is still bravely continued and carried out by young men like Claudio.
Later that day, I expressed to my mother, how moving the whole experience had been, and how tragic it was that our community has experienced this great loss of one of our own young men for the third time this year. She reminded me that when she was a teenager, it was daily news that one of their own had been lost in Vietnam.
On a strange day like this, when you face the reality of the sacrifice our country has made, a day in which a beautiful, strong and dedicated young man is taken from us, regardless of how you feel about war and combat, you can not help but ponder the magnitude of the sacrifice, question the necessity of it all, and marvel that there is no other way, and that time after time, this country responds when freedom is threatened. The answer stopped right in front of me as unexpectedly as Claudio’s motorcade.
I had been significantly diverted by not only the traffic, but my resulting pensive mood that day. I eventually made it back to my schedule of errands, and I was at the Yorba Linda Post Office, when I ran into a friend. She is a mother of three boys in my neighborhood. She was very excited explaining to me that her oldest son who had just graduated in June, was registering to vote, so that he could vote in his first election in November.
I was reminded of a quote I hade read in the paper, attributed to Claudio Patino, “If I don’t, who will.”
It is so easy to get frustrated and feel disengaged in government and politics. It is so easy to be too busy to be informed on the issues in your community, and so easy to be too busy to forget to vote. It is too important not to.
Generation after generation, this country has made substantial sacrifices to secure freedom at home and abroad.
On this fourth of July, honor our fallen soldiers by making certain that you exercise the freedoms they fought to secure for you. Be a participant, be involved in your government, have a say, voice an opinion, ....and most importantly, VOTE. Someone has paid the ultimate sacrifice so that you can.
