Re: I became an old man today (no WHO)

[Alan McKendree <amck@thenetdr.com>]

>From: "gern blanston" <gernblanston67@hotmail.com>
>Subject: I became an old man today (no WHO)
>
>I sat in Church on Sunday morning and could barely contain myself at the
>end, when everyone sang America the Beautiful. It was then that I realized
>that I've become an old man at the ripe old age of 34. I remember growing up
>and going to ball games, watching events on TV and things like that, and
>seeing all the old men in the audience tear up when the Star Spangled Banner
>played. I (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) kind of looked at those old
>guys in a bit of an amusing way. You know how young guys think.
>
>Now I have some idea of how they feel.

Thanks for posting that.  I have had a number of those moments in my 
life, but perhaps never so many as in the last week.  My first came 
when I heard the Congressmen/women singing the Star-Spangled Banner 
right after the attack.  At the end, I heard the last line in a way 
I'd never heard before..."Does that star-spangled banner yet 
wave/O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"  All my 
life I'd heard that line as a question of whether the flag still 
waved.  That day, I realized that the flag was clearly waving...I 
could see it on TV, and it was waving outside my home...but the 
question was, is the land those flags wave over still populated by 
free and brave people?  I'm afraid we are well on the road to having 
to prove it.

I also imagined, just for a moment, what it would be like to live in 
a place where flying the U.S. flag was prohibited (my dad was in such 
a place during WW II) and I understood better why seeing a flag is 
such an emotional experience for them. They've either been in those 
places or seen a serious chance they could be.  For all the tragedy 
we've had so far, none of us are there yet, and I hope we never are.

Cheers,
-- 
Alan
"That's unbelievable, if that's true."
    --Howard Stern, 5/25/00