Posted on 10/30/2001 4:27:15 PM PST by hawaiian
I hope everyone just got a chance to see President Bush just now at the World Series. The whole crowd was chanting "USA" and giving him a standing ovation. He threw a perfect strike, and he was absolutely magical.
"Challenger" was blown from a wild nest as a baby during a storm about twelve years ago, and was hand raised by the people who found him. Unfortunately, he experienced too much human contact at a very young age and became highly "human socialized." As a result, "Challenger" thinks he's a person, and cannot survive on his own in the wild.
He was released into the wild twice. In 1989, after his second release into the wild, "Challenger" was rescued from a close encounter with death. He had landed near a man to beg for food, and almost got beat up by that person with a stick. Another man was "Challenger's" guardian angel that day. He stopped the stick-wielding human from doing bodily harm to the eagle. This had been the third time Challenger had sought out people looking for food when he became hungry, so he was placed under the care of the American Eagle Foundation for educational purposes by federal and state fish & wildlife agencies.
"Challenger" is named in honor of the crew of the space shuttle, and has been making educational appearances throughout the country since 1993. Acting as an ambassador for his species, "Challenger" has raised a great level of national public awareness about the need to restore and protect America's eagles, natural resources and environment. The bald eagle is still a "threatened" species throughout the lower 48 states, and much of its nesting and feeding habitat is being encroached upon by humans.
"Challenger" is the only bald eagle in the U.S., and the only eagle in U.S. history, that has been trained to free-fly into major league sports stadiums during the presentation of the National Anthem. He performed during the anthem at the 1997, 1999 and 2000 World Series, 1999 Fiesta Bowl, and sports events for the Atlanta Braves, Anaheim Angels, Kansas City Chiefs, Minnesota Vikings, New York Yankees, Detroit Lions, Tennessee Titans, LSU Tigers, and University of Tennessee Volunteers.
He has also performed free-flight demonstrations at the Bass Masters Classic, Para-Olympic Games opening ceremony at Olympic Stadium in Atlanta, Disney's Animal kingdom opening ceremony, World War II Memorial groundbreaking ceremony, White House to mention a few. In addition, he as accompanied the Olympic Flag on a special tour around the State of Georgia, and has appeared on numerous national TV shows, including The David Letterman Show, CBS This Morning and Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures.
I, too, tuned in in time to hear that the flag flying tonight was from the WTC. Now, can someone tell me? -- it sounds like that is the flag discussed here a couple of weeks ago -- the veterans were going to burn it because it was torn, and many people (including me) wanted to preserve it for posterity.
It's "Over the ramparts, we watched," which refers to the shelling of Ft. McHenry (I think... It's been a while). Francis Scott Key was a prisoner on a British ship that was participating in the attack, which lasted all night, but "by dawn's early light," the flag was still there!
The fort still stood, after an all night barage.
Mark
Well put!
Elihu, this is what I meant...
Read this thread again and then tyr and tell me the SS know how to tell our leaders to lead the country.
Unlike Bin Laden, our greatest strength is the replacablility of our leaders. Lord knows anyone could have replaced Clinton at any time, even maybe algore.
What year?
I listen to lots of Ella Fitzgerald & Billie Holiday and I relate better to those kind of lyrics.
But by the end "the flag was still there" I'm there, United, One Nation Under God, Indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all (except for criminal aliens)!
OMG! I thought so too!. Extra kudos to GW for fighting off the urge to throw wild.
I did too, wasn't that disgusting? It is so typical for that group to treat the American people like dirt. Oh no, it wasn't the Clinton administration's fault, it's all the fault of the American people. They don't do their jobs, and then they blame us.
One of the reasons Bush is such a terrific leader is because he believes in us and treats us like adults.
Thank God for President Bush!
-penny
;^)
LOL.
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