Posted on 03/29/2003 7:17:47 AM PST by P.O.E.
March 29 Support America Rally, NOON, East Center & Liberty Streets, Nazareth, PA ending at the circle, call 610-759-9188 for details.
According to the message on the phone, it is still being planned for outdoors. Call after 11AM to see if it is moved indoors to Nazareth High School (Click for map)
According to WAEB Radio, they're asking you to wear red, white & blue and bring an American flag.
http://www.northamptoncountygop.com/calendar.htm
I just heard more info on the radio - hope you don't mind I post an update here.
We couldn't stay for the march to the circle (my better half had to leave for work).
Hopefully we can meet up next time.
Nazareth Area High echoes to sounds of 700 expressing their backing of family, friends.
Article from the Morning Call, excerpted below:
Marcia Hahn and Jamie Darois came to the ''Support Our Troops'' rally in Upper Nazareth Township Saturday because of the 23-year-old soldiers in their lives. Hahn said her son Eric was flying to Kuwait with the 4th Infantry Saturday. ''I had to be here to support him,'' Hahn said. ''This is what he wanted to do.''
Darois doesn't know where her husband, David, is. She last spoke to him about three weeks ago, after he arrived in Kuwait and before the war started. ''I'm assuming he's in Iraq by now, but I don't know for sure,'' she said.
Not knowing is unsettling, but after Saturday, Darois and Hahn know one thing for certain: They are not alone in the Lehigh Valley when it comes to supporting American troops in Iraq. Nearly 700 people wearing and waving red, white and blue packed into the Nazareth Area High School gymnasium to say so at a rally organized by the Nazareth Area Chamber of Commerce.
''It's so amazing to know there's so much support out there,'' Darois said. ''It was just awesome to see all those people. I started crying when I saw all their signs.'' Darois was just one of several women sitting in the crowded bleachers clutching handmade posters with photos of their soldiers and sailors attached.
Other sign holders extended their support to President Bush and the war itself, which began March 19 with the goal of removing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power. ''Evil can only triumph when good men do nothing,'' read the sign Cynthia Schultes carried into the gym. A corrections officer from Allentown, Schultes said she and her husband, Brian, also attended a rally in Valley Forge on March 16.
....SNIP......
In the gym, they sang patriotic songs. They prayed. Some cried. They also saluted veterans and remembered the dead with silence and taps. In between, there were speeches, including one from a retired Air Force general who grew up in Nazareth. The crowd welcomed retired Lt. Gen. Charles J. Searock Jr. with a standing ovation.
''Sit down. I'm just a kid from South Street,'' said Searock, who now lives in Medford, N.J. ''I had an opportunity to serve, and I did.'' Searock retired in 1993 after 37 years, which included 152 bombing missions in Vietnam and more than 8,000 combat hours in the air.
''This is just a great outpouring of support for our troops, and we desperately need that,'' Searock said. ''Let's hold steadfast in our resolve. If the troops begin to feel we're losing interest, then they're going to feel deserted.'' Searock dismissed some antiwar protesters' claims that the war is to gain control of Iraq's oil fields. ''If we wanted oil, we could have gained that the last time around. We didn't have to wait 10 years,'' Searock said. ''They're not trying to occupy Iraq. They're are trying to free the Iraqi people.''
Former Allentown City Councilman Pamela Varkony, who served as master of ceremonies, has a son who served in the 43-day Persian Gulf War to liberate Kuwait in 1991 after Iraq invaded. ''There is no question in this conflict where our duty lies,'' Varkony said. ''And for anyone who may have a memory lapse of where our duty lies.''
Varkony held up the front page of a New York City newspaper featuring a photo taken this week of a mural on a building in Iraq. It shows a plane crashing into a building, which, Varkony said, ''glorifies'' the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York. As the crowd cheered the cause, Varkony again said, ''Let us not forget where our duty lies.''
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