Forget health care, housing, Iraq, global warming, education, crime,
racism, and even gay marriage. Flag Burning is THE issue.
On June 28, the U.S. Senate came within one vote
of voting for a flag burning constitutional amendment. U.S. Senator from
California, Diane Feinstein, voted for the amendment.
Flags
And
we went down
To the
place
Where Bill was
buried
And there were flags all over the
place
I mean flags like a sea
And flags like a
crowd
Flags like I never seen
before
Millions of
them
All standing so
tall
And blowing free and
proud
All in neat
rows
For as far as you could
see
So we walked among
them
Past Iwo
Jima
And all the other strange
names
And the flags snapped against our
legs
Cracking in the
wind
And just up a
ways
Just past the
bridge
Was where Bill
was
Just past the bridge
That is what they told
us
And soon we got up to the
place
And we were sure it was the
place
The flags were new and
clean
The graves
fresh
The tin markers all in
place
With death
and
When the men put them into the
ground
And we looked a long
time
Before we found
Bill
So we just sat
there
Where they put him in the
ground
Just past the
bridge
In a sea of
flags
Millions of
them
And then we got
up
And Pop brushed the tire tracks
That still held yesterday’s
rain
He brushed them off the
grave
And we walked slowly back over the
bridge
Through the
flags
That snapped against our legs . .
.
– ron
kovic
BORN ON THE 4TH OF
JULY
Ron Kovic is a twice-wounded
Vietnam veteran. This ex-Marine Sgt. (retired on disability) volunteered for two
tours of duty in Vietnam. He won the Bronze Star, Navy Commendation Medal and
the New York State Conspicuous Service Cross.
On Jan. 20, 1968, he was wounded
seriously enough to be confined to a wheel chair for the rest of his life, thus
ending his participation in that senseless war. Through this ordeal he came to
realize how wrong it would be for any more soldiers to duplicate this horrendous
experience–in a war and in the VA hospital.
Ron was a member of the Venice Chapter of
Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and continues to speak out against war, in
general, and Iraq, in particular.
He
wrote a book about his life, entitled Born on the 4th of July, which was made
into a movie with the same name. Happy Birthday, Ron!
Posted: Sat
- July 1, 2006 at 09:17 PM