They Still Know the Words

[pfflier]

Last Sunday the Padres and Diamondbacks had a day game in Yuma, Arizona. As part of the pre-game, a young lady started singing the Star Spangled Banner. The microphone broke up once or twice and outright quit in the first two or three lines. People in the crowd picked up the tune without missing a beat first a few, then swelling to all seven thousand. It was the most awesome spine tingling show of patriotism that I ever witnessed. More important, as I scanned the crowd to see who was doing the singing I saw blacks and hispanics and whites young and old, all singing. The cheer at the end was deafening. It was America at its best.

[pfflier]

For a Viet Nam Vet this was a welcome home parade. What a day!

"Let any nation know..whether they wish us well or evil..that we will bear any burden...to assure that the light of liberty shines throughout the world."

[Kithlyara]

That is awesome! I wish I had been there. However hokey this sounds, I got all tingly thinking about it :0 )

[ProudEagle]

Thanks for the good news. Now if we can get the elected "leaders" (and I use that term very loosely) in Washington to follow suit we might have something.

[barker]

Great story. I've always gotten goose bumps whenever hearing that song but for some reason the last few months the bumps seem to get bigger and my eyes get mistier. Can't wait for the Royals opening day next Monday.

[Argus]

Defence of Fort McHenry bump!

[ellery]

Reminds me of the end of the How the Grinch Stole Christmas when all the Whos in Whoville, tall and small, sang with the Grinch. Except this is for real...thanks for passing this along:-)

[nimc]

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty." ~John F. Kennedy~

This fellow Nam Vet still wells with pride and resolve when this passage is heard. I, at 12 years old recorded KFK's speeches on an ancient reel to reel. At 18 I volunteered for Nam.

Never again had I felt such emotion until GWB's address to Congress on Sept 20th.

Let's Roll

[Bahbah]

Thank you for telling us about this.

[pfflier]

This fellow Nam Vet still wells with pride and resolve when this passage is heard.

You're absolutely right. The revisionists have swept under the carpet our generation's early committment as spoken by JFK. Hollywood has bastardized America's youth into zippo bearing murderers. Those who weren't there will never know that many volunteered for the military and for duty in Viet Nam because they were inspired by Kennedy's words. Those same cannot fathom the hurt we felt when they burned our flag, flew the flag of our enemy and called us baby burners.

The grass-roots patriotism I witnessed had the same feel as the early sixties. Thanks to President Bush and to our vets we see a resurgance in national pride!

[FryingPan101]

From the wife of a Vietnam Vet, thank you for the post. It was short but sharp. I felt like we were there. It must have been great.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

...As Lt. Col. HAL G. MOORE said over and over again about the Heroism of his men at the Battle of the IA DRANG-1965...

.."Thats just ...OUTSTANDING!!!"

[VOA]

.."Thats just ...OUTSTANDING!!!"

A few weeks before 9-11, I bought a Pearl Harbor Issue by Time-Life off the newsstand.
In the forward by Hugh Sidey (sp?), he told how a reporter from the Christian
Science Monitor joined a large crowd of shocked and depressed citizens on the
lawn of the White House on Dec. 8, 1941.

In the midst of the collective low spirits, the crowd slowly and surely all started
singing "God Bless America".
The reporter said that at the moment he knew everything was going to be OK.

(Can't tell you how many times I thought of that in the days following 9-11. Esepcially with
the Senate singing the song en masse.)

[boris]

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

[Snow Bunny]

Thank you for pinging me to this.

[Snow Bunny]

Thank you pfflier for this.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

NEVER FORGET

See:

'September 11, 2001--Another Day That Will Live in Infamy'

...Thread in the -General Discussion/Off Topic- Forum of the .."WE WERE SOLDIERS".. website:

.. www.WeWereSoldiersFILM.com ..

...for after the Attacks of Sept 11th...

...WE ARE ALL SOLDIERS NOW...???

NEVER FORGET

[chiefqc]

I agree, but most of them are useless, selfserving, whining morons.

Their major concerns are reelection, and self promotion at all cost.

The people who elected them are of little or no concern until it's time for their next election. Then it's lies, lies,lies and then more lies.

If ever there was a group of worthless POS they are the ones.