Tell One “Thank You and We Are Proud Of You” Every Day!
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 to 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 workand 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. One day the Vietnamese searched our cell, as they did periodically, and discovered Mike's shirt with the flag sewn inside, and removed it.
That evening they returned, opened the door of the cell, and for the benefit of all of us,
beat Mike Christian severelyfor the next couple of hours.
Then, they opened the door of the cell and threw him in.
We cleaned him up as well as we could. The cell in which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle on which we slept.
A naked light bulb hung in each corner of the room. As I said, we tried to clean up Mike as well as we could. After the excitement died down, I looked in the corner of the room, and sitting there beneath that dim light bulb with a piece of red cloth, another shirt and his bamboo needle, was my friend, Mike Christian.
He was sitting there with his eyes almost shut from the beating he had received,
making another American flag.
He was not making the flag because it made Mike Christian feel better. He was making that flag becausehe knew how important it was to us to be able to Pledge our allegiance to our flag and country...
So the next time you say the Pledge of Allegiance, you must never forget the sacrifice and courage that thousands of Americans have made to build our nation
and promote freedom around the world.
You must remember our duty, honor and our country.
In Memorial
Recently, the UK removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum
because it "offended" the Muslim population which claims it never occurred.
This is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.
It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated while the German and Russian peoples looked the other way!
Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others,claiming the Holocaust to be "a myth," it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.
This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide! Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world.
How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center "never happened" because it offends some muslim in the U.S. ?
)
