The American flag and the Pledge of Allegiance [are] the foundation of who we are as American citizens and the sacrifice our veterans have made for our great country. I still recall as a young soldier at Fort Knox how our commanding officer explained the importance of respecting and honoring our flag and the men and women who fought for our freedom.Our national flag represents all that is good about America. Veterans Day is just a few weeks away and millions of Americans will be celebrating the service and sacrifices made by our men and women in the Armed Forces. Only 1 percent of our citizens placed their lives on hold to serve and protect this great nation. When we pledge allegiance to the flag, it is a symbol that brings all Americans together in our common belief that all men and women are created equal and how fortunate we are to have the privileges granted to us under the Bill of Rights. The flag does not belong to any one political group, party or ideology. It belongs to all of us and needs to be defended, respected, and protected from hate speech and protests.Old Glory is not just a piece of cloth, it dawns the red and white stripes with her blue panel in holding the 50 stars, one for each state of the union. The red stripes represent our country’s strength and valor. The white stripes are for the purity and innocence of a young nation while the blue panel holds our 50 states together in our vigilance and justice. Although America is not perfect, the flag is perfect and represents a country always striving for good and not evil. It is the greatest national flag to have ever flown.It my deepest and unbending beliefs that it all begins in our schools. The Ten Commandments should be in a prominent place in all our schools and public buildings. The Pledge of Allegiance should be recited every day in every classroom and public meeting. Most important, all school children should be allowed to pray privately or in a group without interference, for what authority is greater than God’s? If we keep our priorities straight with our love for God, Family, and Country, we will continue to live in peace and in the greatest nation in the world.
Letters: Boom Or Bust?
The latest news in America is the newfound strength of the economy. The stock market is booming at the moment, and the employment rate is rising—although the jobs in most abundance are service jobs that do not require the university degrees that most of us spent thousands of dollars to acquire, and the homeless population is increasingly becoming clearly visible in every major American city. But never mind that, the important thing is that the stock market is doing well, right? Executives and brokers on Wall Street are optimistic for the future of their own pensions and hedge funds, and that means that all is well with the average American workers, right?If the American economy is in good hands at the moment, what are the plans for employing the seemingly unemployable, the hundreds upon thousands of homeless individuals we see hiding under every bridge and overpass on every American highway? What are the plans for repairing our cracking roadways that connect us from “sea to shining sea”? How many American bridges have to collapse before the national government decides to upgrade our infrastructure for this new century? Do the Wall Street power-brokers see the plight of Middle America, the continuous struggle of the lower classes? While the multinational corporate classes draw up battle plans for consolidating their control over oil markets in the Middle East, are fast-food workers across the country seething with hatred toward “those goddamn towel-heads”? Is a majority of the voting public really on board with another war in the Middle East? Does the United States government even represent the American public anymore? Why are most elected officials millionaires, while the average American is living paycheck to paycheck?
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