Hello everyone
Over the next week, you will notice some interesting posts. This is because I will be out of town. My family and I are headed to Virginia to accomplish a variety of tasks. The first and most important, I may actually be there for the birth of my second niece, Rebecca Lee. We may be also looking at houses.
Thankfully, that doesn’t mean my readers have to go without my “words of wisdom” for a week. I can put posts up to be published for a later date. As a result, here is my first installment. I was given this as a forward from a friend. This e-mail highlights the daily significance of those freedoms that we often take for granted. As a matter of fact, many of these freedoms are a issue of controversy right now. One of those being the Pledge Of Allegiance. Here is one presidential candidates view. In the words of John McCain:
John McCain’s remarks about the Pledge of Allegiance
In light of the recent appeals court ruling in California , with respect to the Pledge of Allegiance, the following recollection from Senator John McCain is very appropriate:
‘The Pledge of Allegiance’ – by Senator John McCain
‘As you may know, I spent five and one half years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. In the early years of our imprisonment, the NVA kept us in solitary confinement or two or three to a cell. In 1971 the NVA moved us from these conditions of isolation into large rooms with as many as 30 to 40 men to a room.
This was, as you can imagine, a wonderful change and was a direct result of the efforts of millions of Americans on behalf of a few hundred POWs 10,000 miles from home.
One of the men who moved into my room was a young man named Mike Christian.
Mike came from a small town near Selma , Alabama . He didn’t wear a pair of shoes until he was 13 years old. At 17, he enlisted in the US Navy. He later earned a commission by going to Officer Training School Then he became a Naval Flight Officer and was shot down and captured in 1967. Mike had a keen and deep appreciation of the opportunities this country and our military provide for people who want to work and want to succeed.
As part of the change in treatment, the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to receive packages from home. In some of these packages were handkerchiefs, scarves and other items of clothing.
Mike got himself a bamboo needle. Over a period of a couple of months, he created an American flag and sewed on the inside of his shirt.
Every afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup, we would hang Mike’s shirt on the wall of the cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance.
I know the Pledge of Allegiance may not seem the most important part of our day now, but I can assure you that in that stark cell it was indeed the most important and meaningful event.