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Greek Pilot's Heartbreaking Letter: "Who I Fly Οver the Aegean For"

Fly Οver the Aegean

A letter written by a Greek Air Force pilot reflecting the harsh conditions that Greeks are living in recently went viral on the Greek cyberspace. The pilot explains what motivates him to go to work everyday and risk his life for a small sallary that he saw being reduced after the recent austerity cuts. Read the heart-touching letter below (the original text was in Greek):

When I look toward the white horses of the Aegean, my mind wanders to the sky of the Divine, the Beauty, the Genuine.

I’m not a semi-god, I’m not invulnerable, I’m not even a hero! I have my fears, my inhibitions, my insecurity! I might not be in a position to ask of my wretched country something better for me, my children, I might not even worth what I earn!
All these thoughts cross my mind, tighten my throat and dry my mouth!
Poor Country, you have all these useless people on your back and me as well. I might have known how dangerous and meaningless, maybe even how useless what I do is for a lot down there!
They may be right, you see I don’t turn off switches, I don’t drive a bus with 50 souls, I don’t run photocopies for the members of the parliament on a winter’s night in January in the warmth of the Parliament!
I sit, think, ponder and wait for the enemy. I too, may not have money to pay the utilities, but you don’t care, I might not have money to pay the large property tax for my home in the village, but you don’t care. And nor should you!
However, I have to empty my mind, lock up my subconscious, not think that my family is waiting for me at home too, like so many others who never returned from a daily mission. Some people might even say that I was asking for it!
But I don’t  fly for them, I fly for my Father who feels proud at the side of the field when our fighter jets fly over, I fly for my child in Florina who walks in the snow to go to school, I fly for our Priest who walks miles to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ with the shepherds on the heights of the Virgin Mary mountain.
I fly for the Fisherman who sets off in his fishing boat at four in the morning to bring the day’s wages to his family, I fly for the poor Teacher who pays for photocopies out of his own pocket in the small village of Agrafa, Karditsa.
Those are the people I fly for.
So that they can do what they have been doing for years and keep our country alive! Neither they, nor I will ask overtime for holidays and Sundays, because I fly for my country. I fly for my people, those who revel with their soul, live for the moment, and when they die, see off their people with songs and pledge to meet again!
You might see me one morning when you look up high, because “where the eagle straightens its wings the seagulls don’t fly!”
* One of the many who are so few, though!!!

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