posted on October 17, 2001 07:45:28 AM new
Subject: McCain and the Pledge of Allegiance
Date: October 11, 2001
From a speech made by Capt. John S. McCain, US, (Ret)
who represents Arizona in the senate:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
As you may know, I spent five and one half years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. In the early years of our imprisonment, the NVA kept us in solitary
confinement or two or three to a cell.
In 1971 the NVA moved us from these conditions of isolation into large rooms with as many as 30 to 40 men to a room.
This was, as you can imagine, a wonderful change and was a direct result of the efforts of millions of Americans on behalf of a few hundred POWs 10,000 miles from home.
One of the men who moved into my room was a young man named Mike Christian.
Mike came from a small town near Selma, Alabama. He didn't wear a pair of shoes until he was 13 years old. At 17, he enlisted in the US Navy. He later earned a
commission by going to Officer Training School. Then he became a Naval Flight Officer and was shot down and captured in 1967.
Mike had a keen and deep appreciation of the opportunities this country and our military-provide for people who want to work and want to succeed.
As part of the change in treatment, the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to receive packages from home. In some of these packages were handkerchiefs, scarves and other items of clothing. Mike got himself a
bamboo needle.
Over a period of a couple of months, he created an American flag and sewed on the inside of his shirt. Every afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup, we would hang Mike's shirt on the wall of the cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance. I know the Pledge of Allegiance may not seem the most important part of our day now, but I can assure
you that in that stark cell it was indeed the most important and meaningful event.
One day the Vietnamese searched our cell, as they did periodically, and discovered Mike's shirt with the flag sewn inside, and removed it.
That evening they returned, opened the door of the cell, and for the benefit of all us, beat Mike Christian severely for the next couple of hours. Then, they opened the door
of the cell and threw him in. We cleaned him up as well as we could.
The cell in which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle on which we slept. Four naked light bulbs hung in each corner of the room. As said, we tried to clean up Mike as well as we could. After the excitement died down, I looked in the corner of the room, and sitting there beneath that dim light bulb with a piece of red cloth, another shirt and his bamboo needle, was my friend, Mike Christian. He was sitting there with his eyes almost shut from the beating
he had received, making another American flag.
He was not making the flag because it made Mike Christian feel better. He was making that flag because he knew how important it was to us to be able to pledge allegiance to
our flag and our country. So the next time you say the Pledge of Allegiance, you must never forget the sacrifice and courage that thousands of Americans have made to build our nation and promote freedom around the world. You must remember our duty, our honor, and our country.
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
posted on October 17, 2001 10:19:07 AM new
Well, you made me cry with that post......very powerful indeed!
It reminds me of a book I recently purchased through one of the book clubs at my son's school - it's called "The Pledge of Allegiance". We celebrate all the holidays at our home and I thought this book would be an excellent addition to our Memorial Day/4th of July collection of books (in addition to decorating the house, we also have associated collections of books for the various holidays). The first time I read the book I burst into tears - on one of the pages was a picture of the Statue of Liberty and the twin towers of the World Trade Center. This book had been ordered in late August, before the Sept. 11 attacks. The picture literally sent chills up and down my spine.....The book will have even more meaning now to my family; that one picture leaves behind a legacy to all the heroes of Sept. 11......we will never forget....
posted on October 17, 2001 11:13:54 AM new
John McCain is an absolutely wonderful person to listen to! Thank you so much for sharing this!
This is one of my personal favorites - it is a speech he gave to the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) on February 23, 1999. It is a bit lengthy, but well worth reading...
"Thank you. I am deeply grateful for this award and honored by your recognition. It means a great deal to me. I want to talk with you tonight about our country. And in appreciation for your kindness, I will try to keep my remarks brief. We Americans are a hopeful people. We believe in the promise of tomorrow no matter how content or discontent we are today. Hope has made us brave. Hope has made us a big country, where faith in the individual, no matter his race or ethnic background, has released a greater store of human initiative than in any other nation in history.
I believe we are an unfinished nation; that we can be a better country than we are today. And it is up to all of us to make certain we don't let politics impede our progress.
When political parties have philosophical or policy differences they should profess those differences openly, forcefully, and, preferably, without rancor. That's good for the country. As partisans, and as good citizens, we have an obligation to make clear our opposition to ideas that we sincerely believe are wrong for the country. There's no shame in that. But I have always hoped to be defined more by what I support than by what I oppose. Toward that end, I believe it is long past time to move beyond the stale debates between right and left on issues affecting our national unity.
We should all, Republican and Democrat alike, be working toward a new American unity. We need the help of every community to extend American greatness into the next century. We can't afford to leave anyone behind. We should avail ourselves of the genius and industry of all Americans in the continuing tradition that is our national heritage.
Debates that feature only Republican opposition to quotas and Democrat support for affirmative action are inadequate to the challenges of our time. Politics at its best is a competition of ideas, each party offering creative solutions to the nation's problems. I respect different, but sincerely held views. But, respectfully, I will not concede any advantage in the cause of national unity to any of my friends, be they Democrat or Republican.
I am a proud member of the Party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. I believe in building opportunities, not erecting barriers. Ours is a culture of many points of origin. That's a strength, not a weakness.
It doesn't matter to me in what country any American was born. As long as they assent to Mr. Jefferson's proposition that "all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights" they are an American, and their rights are as precious to me as my own.
I am blessed to live in Arizona, and I love my state. I love its natural beauty and I love its rich and varied culture. It is a place where people with many experiences, from many traditions have come to share in the promise of freedom. They have come to accept the risk of freedom in the hope of building a better life.
Spanish was spoken in my state when it was carved from the wilderness. I am proud that it is spoken there today. Spanish culture influenced the making of Arizona society. And Arizona society cannot sustain its character, absent that influence today.
Yes, we all need to speak English well if we are to succeed in this country. But no one should have to abandon the language of their birth to learn the language of their future. We don't need laws that cause any American to believe we scorn their contributions to our culture.
Yes, we need to control our borders. No one argues with that. Just ask the recent immigrant who came here legally and is the first to be knocked off the ladder of opportunity by illegal immigrants. But we don't need ballot initiatives that make people think we want them to abandon their hopes because some of us don't believe the American Dream is big enough to share anymore.
I know from personal experience that the Republican message can have strong appeal in Hispanic communities. I may be the only Republican who has run a statewide campaign and won a majority of the Hispanic vote -- twice. I won over 55% in my last election. I am very proud of that. But I am not satisfied with that number. I want all their votes. Their support is my honor. Those Arizonans believe in me, and I believe in them. I want their help to build a better country, a bigger country, and I intend to get it.
With respect, I believe mine is the party that best rewards hard work. I believe we are the party that best protects small businesses. I believe we are the party that wants to make parochial education more affordable for more Americans. We are the party of smaller government. I don't believe anyone comes to this country to find big government. On the contrary, I think it is the very thing people come to America to escape. They come here to find freedom, and opportunity. These are central principles in the Republican message, but they are too often drowned out by the politics of division. We are a better country than that, and we are a better party than that.
I was not always a politician. For quite a few years, I had the honor of serving my country in other ways. And I would like to close my remarks by recognizing and saluting the service of those Hispanic-Americans who have fought and died to preserve freedom for all Americans.
Last November, America lost one of her most loyal sons. Roy Benavidez was the son of a Texas sharecropper, a seventh grade dropout who suffered the humilation of being constantly taunted as a "dumb Mexican." He grew up to become a master sergeant in the Green Berets, and served in Vietnam. He was a member of that rare class of warriors whose service was so honorable, so brave that they are privileged to wear the Medal of Honor. He was decorated by Ronald Reagan, who said that if the story of his heroism were a movie script "you would not believe it." I would like to recall part of that story tonight.
On May 2, 1968, in an outpost near the Cambodian border, Sergeant Benavidez listened to his short-wave radio as the voice of a terrified American, part of a 12 man patrol that had been completely surrounded by a North Vietnamese battalion, pleaded to be rescued. Armed with only a knife, Benavidez immediately jumped into a helicopter and took off with a three man crew to rescue his trapped comrades.
When they arrived at the fighting, the enemy was too numerous for the helicopter to immediately evacuate the surrounded soldiers. It had to land seventy-five yards away from their position. After making the sign of the cross, Sergeant Benavidez jumped out of the helicopter as it hovered ten feet above the ground, and began to run toward his comrades carrying his knife and a medic bag.
He was shot almost immediately, but he got up and kept moving. An exploding grenade knocked him down again, shrapnel tearing into his face. He got up and kept moving. Reaching the Americans' position, he found four men dead, and all the others badly wounded. He armed himself with an enemy rifle, and began to treat the wounded, distribute ammunition and call in air strikes. He was shot again. He then ordered the helicopter to come in closer as he dragged the dead and wounded aboard. After he got all of the wounded aboard, he ran back to retrieve classified documents from the body of a fallen soldier. He was shot in the stomach, and grenade fragments cut into his back. He got up and kept moving, and he made it back to the helicopter.
But the pilot was shot and the helicopter crashed. Benavidez pulled the wounded from the wreckage and radioed for air strikes and another helicopter. He kept fighting until air support arrived. He was shot several more times before a second helicopter landed. As he was carrying a wounded man toward it, a North Vietnamese soldier clubbed him with his rifle and stabbed him with a bayonet. Sergeant Benavidez fought him to death, hand to hand. After rescuing three more of his comrades, he was finally flown with them to safety.
Bleeding profusely, his intestines spilling from his stomach wounds, and completely immobile, a doctor thought him to be dead. Roy was placed in a body bag, before the doctor discovered he was still alive. Miraculously, he survived, but spent a year in hospitals recovering from seven serious gunshot wounds, twenty-eight shrapnel wounds, and bayonet wounds in both arms.
It took thirteen years for Roy Benavidez to receive his Medal of Honor. But it didn't seem to matter to him. He stayed in the Army. The war, and his forgotten heroism never embittered him. He spent his retirement speaking to schools and youth groups, counseling troubled kids, encouraging them to stay in school and off drugs.
"I'm proud to be an American," Roy Benavidez said as he lay dying last year in a San Antonio hospital. May God bless his soul. And may Americans, all Americans, be proud – very proud – that Roy Benavidez was one of us. I wouldn't want to live in a country that didn't recognize how much we needed such a good man.
I prefer to live in a bigger place. I prefer to live in a growing America, as proud of its variety as it is of the ideals that unite us. I prefer to live in a hopeful country. I prefer to live in Roy Benavidez' America.
I hope that is why you have honored me today. I have every intention of remaining worthy of that honor. Thank you."
posted on October 17, 2001 11:20:28 AM new
Oh, Zilvy, what a wonderful speech you've shared. I'd never heard that before. None of us will ever understand what those POWs went through. It lightens my spirit to know how much seeing that American Flag meant to them...what it represented to them. Thank you so very much for sharing it.
I've really been struggling lately, especially when I read reports of issues like the one that the school board in WI. If you've not heard, the school board decided the children would not say the Pledge of Allegiance because it might offend some people. OFFEND??? I was livid. This is America, isn't it? The motives of those who don't wish to pledge allegiance should be questioned, not asking those Americans (or their children) who wish to pledge their allegiance to our country to stop doing so. Being asked to be PC for the benefit of whom? Those who have other allegiances????
Have we now grown so diversified that there are only a few left alive who have generations of family members who have always wanted to honor our customs and feel deep allegiance to our country? Has this happened because so many come to our country, who want all we offer them here, but still want to keep their allegiance to their birth country? Could it be that they don't want to honor our customs, because it's not their history so they don't feel bonded to our country and it's history?
In our country's history, people have come to America wanting to learn our language, honor our customs and traditions....become Americans. Now it seems to me, that so many come here and using the freedoms/benefits our country offers......but don't like our traditions so become offended by them. IE: Don't say the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag...it offends me. Take those American flags down, they might offend some. Don't have signs saying God Bless America because while it's been part of our country's history for years, it's on our coins, etc.....that should be stopped. It offends too many.
Sorry for this rant, I really have been struggling with all this. When I read last night that Muslim leaders HAVE GIVEN PERMISSION FOR THEIR FOLLOWERS IN OUR US ARMY TO FIGHT AGAINST OTHER MUSLIMS.....I just lost it. Excuse me????? These muslims have joined our military services, but needed to get permission for the Muslim leaders *before* they decide to fight for/with America??? Why in the h**L did they sign up in the first place? When anyone signs up to serve our country they take a pledge to OUR COUNTRY!!! to serve....not only when their religious leaders decide they can. Now their religious leaders can influence whether or not they fight along side of other American military personel??? What if their Muslim leaders/cleric decided they couldn't fight our enemies??? The article I read said there are 15,000 Muslim U.S.military personel were waiting for an answer from their religious leaders/cleric. They needed to get a fatwa on this issue.
How in the world could these people, (like those who want American flags taken off the sides of our emergency vehicles, stop saying in God We Trust, and now the pledge of allegiance to end) really want such things to stop/be ended. I raged, I cried, I got depressed.
Many overwhelming feelings about this and other news items that are similiar. I felt better when I read that over 800 parents met with that school board and let them know how they felt about that decision. But is this what we're going to have to do (threaten to remove them from the board) each and every time some school board, fire department, etc. decides that our country's practices should be stopped so WE don't offend?
I will never be able to understand people who want 'God Bless America' taken off of anything. Like in the CA school (in Rocklin) where the school children were raising funds for the WTC families and were feeling pride in how they were able to help, and all because ONE parent didn't like it we've now got the ACLU involved. ONE PARENT. I'll never understand how one person who is offended has more rights/power/etc than the 799 others do. I just don't understand PC to this degree.
Sorry for this rant. It's just where I am emotionally right now....not a great place...makes me very sad. I apologize in advance, to anyone who might be offended by what I've shared. But it's my opinion on all these anti-American postures I've been seeing of late.
posted on October 17, 2001 12:30:06 PM new
Lindak, you go girl! You DAMN sure havent offended me, an thats a fact. Im proud of you, and you are entitled to feel anger, dismay, heartbreak, pissiness and any other word that can be thought up that suits the mood. Im gonna hug ya now...dont kick me
posted on October 17, 2001 12:58:08 PM new
Hepburn - I'll gladly accept the offered hug. Thank you, very very much. You're a sweetheart - always reaching out to those who need comfort, understanding, support or hugs. What a gal
posted on October 17, 2001 02:03:42 PM new
Gee whiz, Hepburn, I haven't had a good HUG in a long time...you sissy you!!
Thanks LindaK, you said a lot of what I have been thinking and feeling about this PC crap!
Wave your flag, say your pledge of allegiance feel proud of our armed forces, our Government (made up of human beings~real living breathing, bleeding humans) trying to do the right thing...and biggest of all our banner "GOD BLESS AMERICA" if the ubiquitous "THEY" don't like it they can put it on "IGNORE".
The majority of Americans need their Patriotic Icons and deserve to find comfort in them without looking over their shoulders and worrying if someone is offended!
