Poetic Reflections of Patriotism
The ClubHouse: Archive: Poetic Reflections of Patriotism
Rogue | Thursday, October 25, 2001 - 06:11 am   Felt very patriotic this morning and wanted to start a new thread (this is my first stab at it). It's a time of unity w/in our country and just thought I would finally voice my thoughts and post some poems (reflective or inspirational) to get it out. Please take part!
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Rogue | Thursday, October 25, 2001 - 06:12 am   "I am the Flag" by Ruth Apperson Rous I am the flag of the United States of America. I was born on June 14, 1777, in Philadelphia. There the Continental Congress adopted my stars and stripes as the national flag. My thirteen stripes alternating red and white, with a union of thirteen white stars in a field of blue, represented a new constellation, a new nation dedicated to the personal and religious liberty of mankind. Today fifty stars signal from my union, one for each of the fifty sovereign states in the greatest constitutional republic the world has ever known. My colors symbolize the patriotic ideals and spiritual qualities of the citizens of my country. My red stripes proclaim the fearless courage and integrity of American men and boys and the self-sacrifice and devotion of American mothers and daughters. My white stripes stand for liberty and equality for all. My blue is the blue of heaven, loyalty, and faith. I represent these eternal principles: liberty, justice, and humanity. I embody American freedom: freedom of speech, religion, assembly, the press, and the sanctity of the home. I typify that indomitable spirit of determination brought to my land by Christopher Columbus and by all my forefathers - the Pilgrims, Puritans, settlers at James town and Plymouth. I am as old as my nation. I am a living symbol of my nation's law: the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights. I voice Abraham Lincoln's philosophy: "A government of the people, by the people,for the people." I stand guard over my nation's schools, the seedbed of good citizenship and true patriotism. I am displayed in every schoolroom throughout my nation; every schoolyard has a flag pole for my display. Daily thousands upon thousands of boys and girls pledge their allegiance to me and my country. I have my own law—Public Law 829, "The Flag Code" - which definitely states my correct use and display for all occasions and situations. I have my special day, Flag Day. June 14 is set aside to honor my birth. Americans, I am the sacred emblem of your country. I symbolize your birthright, your heritage of liberty purchased with blood and sorrow. I am your title deed of freedom, which is yours to enjoy and hold in trust for posterity. If you fail to keep this sacred trust inviolate, if I am nullified and destroyed, you and your children will become slaves to dictators and despots. Eternal vigilance is your price of freedom. As you see me silhouetted against the peaceful skies of my country, remind yourself that I am the flag of your country, that I stand for what you are - no more, no less. Guard me well, lest your freedom perish from the earth. Dedicate your lives to those principles for which I stand: "One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." I was created in freedom. I made my first appearance in a battle for human liberty. God grant that I may spend eternity in my "land of the free and the home of the brave" and that I shall ever be known as "Old Glory," the flag of the United States of America. |
Rogue | Thursday, October 25, 2001 - 06:17 am   STAND UP AND SALUTE AMERICA'S FLAG Look at this tattered flag. The emblem of our country has taken a beating lately, and we need to do something more than shrug our shoulders. Do you tell your children what the flag really means to you? Do you let them see you stand at attention when it passes by? Do you show respect hoping it might become contagious? We must not forget our own personal men and women of honor, willing to lay down their lives for their country. Some may be among the homeless, or the next door neighbor, or may have live in an enemy prison camp and now be in Congress, or forgotten to linger in veterans' homes. So look at this tattered flag and promise yourself to voice at least one positive about the country you live in, and love, not just on Veterans Day but at every opportunity. Remind yourself and other that we don't need militant groups, or another Oklahoma City, or Waco. We need to remember our people are natives here, our ancestors came here for freedom, whatever their way of life. We must remember that in our background might be the soldier who starved to death in prison, because he fought to free the slaves, or one who stood among the dead in the aftermath of a battle in Vietnam, or Korea, or Europe or the southern Pacific, and knew with all his heart that America was still the best the world has to offer, and still worth dying to protect. We need Americans who let it be known that they love this land they live in, and are willing to seek, share and protects its positives for themselves, and for all the rest of us. No parent, no descendant should ever regret or forget having a solider in their genealogy -- their past or present -- who offered their life for their country. Ours is a great land! It's up to us, one by one, to keep it that way. |
Rogue | Thursday, October 25, 2001 - 06:22 am   "HIGH FLIGHT" by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. This poem was written by a young American, John Gillespie Magee, Jr., who flew with the Royal Canadian Air Force in England at the Start of WW II. He was killed shortly after he composed "High Flight." Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds -- and done a hundred things you have not dreamed of -- wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace where never lark, or even eagle flew. And while with silent, lifting mind I've trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space, put out my hand, and touched the face of God. |
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