Glad you shared all of that, e....Good footprint in the sand.
On the schools....today, I chaired a group, who had given a $1000 scholarship to a young man who is graduating from a local High School...4.0, Honors Society, Class Officer, Football Captain, on the basketball team, and ALL sorts of other Etcs....
His winning essay was WHAT and WHY I feel about America....He was sitting in class one day, when the kids were saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the USA. One young man, his peer, continued sitting. Our scholarship winner said he was feeling himself getting angry from the bottoms of his feet to his head.
So, rather than confronting the other student, he gave some serious thought about why he was so angry. He wrote of his family, their values, his values, his ancestors, and the Military service his family had done for generations. And as he was writing, he realized that they had fought for the liberty of everyone in the country to voice his/her opinion, even if it meant sitting when the Pledge was being said.
He told the other young man later that afternoon what he had realized. He noticed the next day that other student rose the next day when the Pledge was being said, even if he didn't repeat it. He rose because it was out of respect for the rights that we all have, and those rights that have been ensured by others putting their lives on the line so that we might enjoy those rights.
I wish I could do him justice with my review of his essay....what a grand young man....His parents were both there and beaming! It gives me hope for the future. |
