The Flag

From: tbird@tjbventures.com
Date: Thu Sep 13 2001 - 22:58:01 PDT


----- THE BATTLE OF THE FLAG

***********************************************

                      It is the soldier, not the reporter,
                     who has given us freedom of the press.

                        It is the soldier, not the poet,
                      who has given us freedom of speech.

       It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the
                                    freedom
                                       to
                                  demonstrate.

       It is the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a
                                      fair
                                     trial.

      ! It is the soldier,who salutes the flag, who serves under the flag,
                                      and
                                     whose
       coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the
                                     flag.

                     A protest raged on a courthouse lawn,
                    Round a makeshift stage they charged on,

      Fifteen hundred or more they say, Had come to burn a Flag that day.

      A boy held up the folded Flag, Cursed it, and called it a dirty rag.

      An OLD MAN pushed through the angry crowd, With a rusty old shotgun,
                               shouldered proud.

       His uniform jacket was old and tight, He had polished each button
                                   shiny and
                                    bright.

      He crossed that stage with a soldier's grace, Until he and the boy
                                     stood
                                 face to face.

                     "FREEDOM OF SPEECH", the OLD MAN said,
                    "Is worth dying for, good men are dead,
      So you can stand on this courthouse lawn, And talk us down from dusk
                                       to
                 dawn... But before any Flag gets burned today,
                    This OLD MAN IS GOING TO HAVE HIS SAY!!

                     "My father died on a ! foreign shore,
                     In a war they said would end all war.
                    But Tommy and I wasn't even full grown,
                     Before we fought in a war of our own.

                     Well, Tommy died on Iwo Jima's beach,
      In the shadow of a hill he couldn't quite reach Where five good men
                                     raised
           this Flag so high, That the WHOLE DAMN WORLD COULD SEE IT
                                      FLY.

                     I got this bum leg that I still drag,
                        Fighting for this same old Flag.
         Now there's but one shot in this old gun, So now it's time to
                              decide which one...

                     Which one of you will follow our lead,
                     To stand and die for what you believe?
                     For as sure as there is a rising sun,
               You'll burn in Hell 'fore this Flag burns, son...

     Now this riot never came to pass. The crowd got quiet and that can of
                                      gas,
                             Got set aside as they
                                 walked away...

      They talked about what they had heard this day. And the boy who had
                                     called
                                      i! t
            a "dirty rag", Handed the OLD SOLDIER that folded Flag.

     So the battle of the Flag this day was won By a tired OLD SOLDIER with
                                       a
                 rusty gun, Who for one last time had to show ,
                                   THIS FLAG
                     MAY FADE, YET THESE COLORS DON'T RUN."

       Now I don't know who wrote this, but I know one thing... God will
                                   Bless Him
                                       ,
                             and above all else...

                               GOD BLESS AMERICA



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