Free Republic

Two years ago this month, musician Johnny Cash passed away. I have been a fan of his music since as far back as I can remember, and one of my favorite songs is "Ragged Old Flag." Its theme resonates throughout American history, but today it seems lost. In "Ragged Old Flag," Cash tells the story of Old Glory, where it came from, where it went, and how it waves on despite hard times. In one verse he sings, "You see, we got a little hole in that flag there/ when Washington took it across the Delaware/ and It got powder...

NOW that John Kerry has lost the election, his French politician cousin can come out of hiding. Kerry's cousin Brice Lalonde, mayor of a French town who once ran for president of France, was shunned by Kerry's family during the election, reports the National Review online. "When Lalonde traveled to support his cousin at the Democratic National Convention in August, many of his relatives were horrified," NR reports. "One part of the family refused to speak French with me and wanted me to hide," Lalonde is quoted as saying. "I really sensed the anti-French feeling during the convention.

Brice Lalonde is a former socialist and Green Party leader in France, who ran for President of France in 1981. In 1988 he was named Minister of the Environment, and in 1990 founded the Green Party Génération Ecologie. He was a student leader during the May 1968 student uprisings in France, when riots and upheaval scared the French population away from Revolution and the old Left, but toward an adaptive and calmer socialism. In 1968, Lalonde was President of the Union Nationale des Etudiants de France (UNEF), the French National Students' Union, which brought France to a standstill with protests...

Mayor of Saint-Briac Knows It's Not the Time to Crow; 'He Was the Big American' SAINT-BRIAC, France -- Brice Lalonde, the mayor of this little town in Brittany, flopped in his dark-horse 1981 bid to become president of France, winning just 4% of the vote. This year, he is hoping for a different prize: first cousin of the president of the United States. Mr. Lalonde is the French-born cousin of John Forbes Kerry of Massachusetts. Their mothers were sisters. On summer days as a 10-year-old in 1956, Brice (pronounced Breece) bicycled here along the rocky coast, went sailing and played...

Re: Francophile in the White House Date: 13 February 2004 Sir - With the spotlight now firmly on John Kerry as the leading Democratic contender, the Americans will, finally, learn who he is. It will be interesting to know their reaction when they find out why he has the absolute support of their bête noire - the French. The truth is that France strongly wants anyone but George W Bush as president so she can turn the page on her damaging relationship with the world's only hyperpower. The French press is now gleefully revealing that Brice Lalonde, the former environment...