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THE AMERICAN FLAG I'd like to tell how I came to write this poem. One rainy day I phoned my friend. Her husband answered the telephone and explained she was out shopping so we began to chat. My friend's husband and I grew up a few miles apart in neighboring tiny towns where the public schools did a fine job of teaching us to be "good Americans." We experienced World War Two and Korea, where he had served in the Marine Corps. My own husband had been a sailor on Guam a few years, and another war, earlier. We lived through Viet Nam where my brother served two hitches in helicopter rescue. Raised families and saw grandchildren serve in Desert Storm. We began discussing how we felt about the flag. He related a story about how as a civilian narcotics officer he'd been in on a drug bust. Among the confiscated items was a dirty, tattered and torn American flag. It hurt his heart to see it so abused. With infinite tenderness the gruff ex-Marine told me how he'd brought that flag home to give it a decent burial. We discussed how the only time we believed "a flag should be burned was when it was retired from active service." As I watched our own flag flying against a free, blue sky that Veteran's Day I took up my pen. And this is what I wrote: THE AMERICAN FLAG Father folds the flag preparatory to burning it after a long, honorable career it is tattered and torn time for a decent retirement We hoist the flag outside our home every holiday patriotism, learned in Boy Scouts, school, the military throughout our lives has ingrained a deep love For our own "stars & stripes" woe unto those who dare to trample it underfoot use it for self-immolation or as contemptuous clothing Too many generations of this family have paid the price for what it represents a symbol of our way of life - FREE! *** Being proud to be an American means honoring the flag. Let's hope and pray we've taught our children well. the end LaVonne Schoneman Copyright (c) 1998 (the poem won an award in 1997 and the essay won an award in 1998) |
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