Recently we were honored to have some surviving members of the famed Tuskegee Airmen visit our community.

It’s hard to imagine that such heroes as the Tuskegee Airmen are real, especially when we daily see people take for granted the privileges and honor they have in being citizens of this country.

Back in the 40s black people were, in most cases, treated worse than second class citizens. They were not even considered important enough to put their lives on the line in order to serve in World War II. Those who were allowed to serve found themselves working in janitorial and cooking positions.

It’s unfathomable that after being treated this way that one would still have the desire to defend a country that allowed such treatment.

But men like the men who served in the Tuskegee Airmen, as they were later called, persisted and as a result performed noble deeds of courage.

These men, even after the war ended, were still not given rightful first class citizenship. That did not come until a man who had a dream came along to peacefully force a nation to change.

We are proud of the will and courage of the men who served in groups like the Tuskegee Airmen; they are an inspiration to us today. As a result of their patriotic perseverance more than 425,000 black Americans are in the forefront protecting our homeland every day.

Thank God we have had men of such courage in our country’s history; without them we doubt we would live in the free society we do today.