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The Right BlogFest honors Flag Day, June 14th, 2011

Today,in honor of Flag Day, several Conservative blogs have joined together to discuss the same subject at the same time. This is NOT a competition of any sort between the blogs. Like last time, this is to bring you several different views and prospective from the Conservative side of the spectrum. I hope you will visit these other excellent blogs who are part of the Right BlogFest; Raised On Hoecakes, The Spin Cycle, Steve Bussey, Two Sisters From The Right. You will find a lead in from each blog with a link to the rest of the post at that blog. All of them are outstanding!

The next Right Blogfest is tentatively set for the 4th of July.

I am sorry to report that this site Patriot's Corner, will not have a feed for Flag Day due to yours truly having to be in budget and forecasting meetings all day. The fact that I managed to get posts up yesterday was nothing short of a miracle. That said, I am making sure this gets up for today, Flag day. I can surely do my part to help out with the Right BlogFest and support these other great blogs. Please feel free to share what you have found at these sites and thanks for stopping by. Remember to put up your Flag!

If I miss anyone, my apologies! I will try to add you in later when I am on break from our meetings if I can find a computer to use. I have to leave for Salem, now!

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Honoring Flag Day, June 14th , 2011

First up will be from Steve Bussey. This is a poem he wrote back in 2009.








I Fought for Old Glory

Some men say I fought not for Old Glory
And they burn our flag to tell their story
It’s true I fought for the buddy on my right
And I fought for my life throughout the night
I fought for position on the street

All the time hearing the artillery’s beat
I fought for that corner up ahead
Beads of sweet rolling down my head
For a while I fought just for time
For a little water I could call mine                                      

When the enemy swarmed I fought like hell
Overwhelming fear – no one could tell                                        
I gave better than I got during the attack
So to my wife and kids I could get back
All the time fighting there’s a patch on my arm                       
For the country it stands there will come no harm
So at the end of the day when I tell MY story
Truth be known – I fought for Old Glory

© 2009 – Steve Bussey




Today is the day we honor the American flag. Unlike many former and retired military members I do not claim to have fought for “your right to burn the flag.” To the contrary, I fought for your right to fly the flag. And I do not automatically make the leap from a constitutionally protected right of free speech for the purposes of political discourse to some more nebulous “freedom of expression.”
It is almost cliché for liberals to claim that our soldiers do not fight for our flag, but to stay alive themselves or to keep their buddies alive. But in the military there are strategic as well as tactical missions and every single GI deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and all points in-between around the world are flying an American flag on their shoulder.


An individual firefight wherein a soldier is fighting “for his life” is a very tactical event, but is always part of a greater strategic mission such as capturing a bridge so the heavy armored units moving up will have a river crossing. So to say a soldier is not fighting for the flag – the symbol of our nation and our way of life and the ultimate strategic military mission – is to disparage his sacrifice. 

Read the rest from Steve Bussey here. 

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Here is how Two Sisters From The Right is honoring our Flag today:

                                                                              
                                                                                   
                                     Our Duty To Our Flag
by
Edgar Guest

Less hate and greed
Is what we need
And more of service true;
More men to love
The flag above
 And keep it first in view.

Less boast and brag
About the flag,
More faith in what it means;
More heads erect
,
More self-respect,
Less talk of war machines.

 The time to fight
To keep it bright

Is not along the way,
Nor 'cross the foam,
But here at home
Within ourselves — today.

'Tis we must love
That flag above
With all our
might and main;
For from our hands,
Not distant lands,
Shall come dishonor's stain
.

If that flag be
Dishonored, we
Have done it, not the foe
;
If it shall fall
We, first of all,
Shall be to strike a blow.


On this Flag Day, June 14, 2011
                                                                               
Two Sisters From The Right
Honor
United States Army,
Sgt. Shawn Dunham
Serving his Country and his Flag in Iraq.
(Second Tour)

God Bless  OUR TROOPS Defenders of our Flag
A note to Two Sisters; This old coot could not get the animated flag to work to my liking so I used the one found above. Hope that is all right. I am not a computer wizard!

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Next up is courtesy of The Spin Cycle


Today, June 14, 2011 is Flag Day.

It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened on that date by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777.

The United States flag is an important and powerful symbol.

It is literally the symbol of our freedom and many sacrifices that brave young men and women had to make in order to guarantee it.

This was the same flag that we planted atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima in 1945, and the flag that astronaut Neil Armstrong put on the moon in 1969.

This was the flag that symbolized the United States when the US Third Army 808th Tank Destroyer Battalion liberated the concentration camp at Gotha Germany in 1945.

The guards and the officials of the concentration camp, desperate not to be caught, fled at our approaching attack and did not have time to kill the rest of the emancipated prisoners. These prisoners, at our approach, rushed out of the gates waving their arms ecstatically at us as our vehicles entered the open gates of the camp.

This was the very same flag that Michael Jordan, of the 1992 U.S. Olympic "Dream Team"  draped around himself as he accepted the gold medal.

This is the flag that drapes the coffins of our brave fallen warriors. The ones who sacraficed all, so that others could live free and enjoy the liberty that God gave them as a natural right.

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day. Later, in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress.

The U.S. flag is also known as the Stars and Stripes, Old Glory and The Star-Spangled Banner. It stands for the United States of America as a government, a nation, a people, and even as the American values of freedom and liberty.

But the flag itself is just a symbol. A symbol that features thirteen horizontal stripes that alternate between dark red and white. These represent the 13 original colonies.
You can read the rest and more here at the Spin Cycle. 

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From Raised On Hoecakes  

Once again, we here at Raised on Hoecakes are thrilled to join with other conservative blogs in “The Right Blogfest.” Being in the company of SteveBussey.com, Two Sisters from the Right, The Patriot’s Corner and a new addition, The Spin Cycle, certainly raises the quality of our posts and writings you can view in and through Raised on Hoecakes.

Today’s Topic: Flag Day.


                                      This is Who We Are


THE AMERICAN FLAG


In its most basic form, it is a piece of cloth.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Yeah, the cloth has three different colors that are stitched together, but it is still cloth. A few cloth stars on a blue background adds to the look, but in its essence, it is pieces of cloth sewn together.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

Of course, a wedding dress is just a piece of cloth as well. A picture is just some ink on a piece of paper. A wedding ring is just a hunk of metal.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

Take a deep breath and tell your wife that the dress she wore for your wedding is “just a piece of cloth.” Take a look at that picture of a deceased parent. Try to believe that it is just “paper and ink.” Take the wedding ring off your finger and look at the inscription. Nothing but a hunk of metal, right?

The value of objects is not in the physical make-up, it is the value of the object in the heart.

Which brings us to the American Flag. Old Glory. The Stars and Stripes.

Flags have been around since 3000 B.C. The flags were used to indicate tribes and nations as well as communicate who was a friend and a foe.

Flags were used to say “this is who we are.”

For Americans today, this is somewhat a difficult concept to understand. We are so concerned about being a hyphenated people (European-American, African-American, Asian-American, etc,” that we have seem to have forgotten “who we are.”

That is a shame. We forget that when the colonists were fighting for independence, carrying the flag was an honor. The best man in each regiment was chosen to carry the flag. Men died protecting not only the country, not only each other, but also the man who stood next to them carrying the flag of this young country – his words and actions screaming “this is who we are.”

As a young boy and a resident of Baltimore, I can remember going to Fort McHenry. I remember hearing and reading the history of the British bombardment of the fort on September 13 – 14, 1814. Despite thousands of rockets and bombs being launched at the defenders within the fort who could not fire back, in the morning the American flag was still flying over the fort letting the British know, “this is who we are.”

In the Civil Way, an American flag flew in the center of Union Troops on Cematary Ridge as unit from the Confederacy marched up the hill toward them. The battle, known as “Pickett’s Charge” was the “high water mark” of the Confederacy. At the end of the battle, the flag still flew, proclaiming, “this is who we are.”

In World War II, the most famous and iconic image of the flag is the raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. After a bloody battle that would continue for months, the American flag told the Japanese “this is who we are.”

In the years since that battle, the use and reverence for the flag has waned and risen again. In the 1960’s, it was not uncommon to see flags being burned or worn on tattered clothing. After 9/11, reverence for the flag seemed to return. Even though it is against the Flag to have the flag on sport uniforms, it is common to see it there now. Police, fireman, etc wear the flag with pride and honor, adding their voices to the chorus of “this is who we are.”

As we observe and celebrate this flag day, we hope that you see more in the flag than pieces of cloth. We hope you look at it and say, “this is who we are.”

We hope that you carry the promise and ideals of the flag into the future.

Why?

Because this is who we are.
 
Original article is here at Raised on Hoecakes

Thank you, to all who participated in this The Right BlogFest .



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