Just standing there

Granted, the wailing cat “singing” the national anthem doesn’t really show much respect either. Maybe he didn’t know it was the national anthem. But then he’s just an aloof space cadet. Not wearing a flag pin is one thing, but not showing respect for the flag is disturbing. He’s running for president!

Utopia

I’m uneasy about Obama’s plan to cut defense spending and get rid of nuclear weapons. Hey, I’d love it if we lived in a different world… but once he pulls the troops out of Iraq and cuts defense spending the compound is going to start looking really good.

Now that Obama is the presumptive nominee for the Dems I know that the right wing bloodhounds are going to go for the jugular. I’ve tried to keep an open mind about him because I really don’t like McCain. But I don’t think I can forgive Obama for slighting the flag. It means something to me. It always has. The first two verses of our national anthem always bring me to tears:

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro’ the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

A deep and abiding respect for the men and women who fought and died for the ideals of our country was instilled in me very young. When I was in high school I protested the school boards decision to hold classes on memorial day by writing a letter and spending the day decorating war veteran’s graves with flags. (I now decorate graves with my children on memorial day.) I also won our schools voice of democracy speech contest that year hosted by the VFW. With the help of those wonderful men I was able to get flags in every classroom in my highschool. The flag means something to me. It always has. I just don’t understand a presidential candidate who won’t show respect for the flag. It feels deliberately sinister to me. Obama will not get my vote. The only good thing that can come of this election for me now is for John McCain to pick a solid, healthy running mate who actually represents the Republican party. win the election, and promptly die.

**For some reason the videos wouldn’t imbed…it must be a conspiracy! ;)