"America's Email"..today by Arlene DiRocco: SALUTE TO OLD GLORY
July 4, 2007 -- There was a time, not all that long ago, when a few foolish folk
thought they would best demonstrate the freedom the American flag symbolizes
simply by burning the flag itself. But the flag endures.
On July 4, the nation's thoughts traditionally turn to the hopes and virtues
that the Stars and Stripes represent - thoughts that have inspired America's
poets since the Republic's early days. Ralph Waldo Emerson's grandfather,
William Emerson, was a minister in Concord at the start of the Revolution. On
April 19, 1775, he urged the Minutemen to stand their ground near his parsonage,
the "Old Manse." In 1776, he left home to join the troops near Ticonderoga. His
family never saw him again: He died of a fever, caught on the punishing journey.
In memory of his grandfather and the fallen Minutemen, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote
the following verses, sung at the dedication of the Concord Battle Monument on
July 4, 1837. Concord Hymn
by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
By the rude bridge that arched the flood
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set today a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee. Walt Whitman saw firsthand the dreadful
sacrifice young Americans made for the flag in the Civil War: He tended the
wounded on the battlefield and elsewhere until the last military hospital in
Washington closed, long after Lee's surrender. Bathed in War's Perfume
by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Bathed in war's perfume - delicate flag!
(Should the days needing armies, needing fleets, come again)
O to hear you call the sailors and the soldiers! flag like a beautiful woman!
O to hear the tramp, tramp, tramp of a million answering men!
O the ships they arm with joy!
O to see you leap and beckon from the tall masts of ships!
O to see you peering down on the sailors of the decks!
Flag like the eyes of women! It is only in recent years that the Stars and
Stripes has been considered appropriate patching material for blue jeans.
Indeed, as the Ohio poet Henry Holcomb Bennett points out, people who failed to
accord the flag the respect it deserved would usually be put sharply in their
place by their fellow citizens. The Flag Goes By
by Henry Holcomb Bennett (1863-1924)
Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
A flash of color beneath the sky;
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!
Blue and crimson and white it shines
Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines
Hats off!
The colors before us fly;
But more than the flag is passing by:
Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great
Fought to make and to save the State:
Weary marches and sinking ships;
Cheers of victory on dying lips;
Days of plenty and years of peace;
March of a strong land's swift increase;
Equal justice, right and law,
Stately honor and reverend awe;
Sign of a nation, great and strong
Toward her people from foreign wrong:
Pride and glory and honor all
Live in the colors to stand o r fall.

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~ "God Bless America" ~ That's my Field of Dreams ~ Voice Mail ~
800-699-2466 Box number Baseball1 (2273225501) ~ Email Fax 253-484-6438 ~
John@... -http://JohnGraham.net ~ Chief Officer of Election ~
Commonwealth of Virginia ~ Notary Public ~ My Star ISC 1045048-7 ~ L# 22 ~ "Sic
Semper Tyrannis" ~ "Ne Oublie" ~ Let's Roll!! ~






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