Saturday, February 11, 2012

A Real American Hero

I got this in an email today and I wanted to share it. I hope it does not offend anyone but it is things I did not know anything about until now. Yes I knew John was a POW but knew nothing about the circumstances they actually lived under.
 
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.
 
     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 severely for 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. Four naked light bulbs 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 because he 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, our honor, and our country.
 
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
 
I honestly hope no one was offended by this post but it touched me so much I felt the urge to share it. As you read it word for word you realize John did not say one word about how he was tortured.

Never squat with your spurs on . . . . . .

I love it when I get something in my email that I can share!!

Never squat with your spurs on.

Will Rogers, who died in a 1935 plane crash, was one of the greatest political sages this country has ever known.

Some of his sayings:

1. Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.

2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.

3. There are two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither works.

4. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

5. Always drink upstream from the herd.

6. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

7. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back into your pocket.

8. There are three kinds of men:

The ones that learn by reading.
The few who learn by observation.
The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.

9. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

10. If you're riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.

11. Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back.

12. After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.

The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.

ABOUT GROWING OLDER...

First ~ Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age
 and start bragging about it.

Second ~ The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Third ~ Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me; I want people to know 'why' I look this way. I've traveled a long way, and some of the roads weren't paved.

Fourth ~ When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of Algebra.

Fifth ~ You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.

Sixth ~ I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.

Seventh ~ One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it's such a nice change from being young.

Eighth ~ One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.

Ninth ~ Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.

Tenth ~ Long ago, when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft.
 Today it's called golf.

And, finally ~ If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything
to laugh at when you're old.

I hope that you have enjoyed this!! Stay warm and while you're looking for something to do, check out OLA.com!! And, as always, we invite you to see what we have in our store, KornKountryTreasures!

Thank you!