Melinda Musil dot Com

Yesterday I went to a John McCain rally near my home.  Both McCain and Palin spoke, as well as several other local Republican politicians.  I had lots of fun and had a great time hanging out with other Republicans.  However, I forgot to take my camera, and besides, I was never really able to take any good pictures.  So instead of making this a political, “vote for McCain” post, I thought I would write about another of my experiences while I was at the rally.

Naturally they had a US Flag on display at the rally – in fact, there were two prominant flags, one on each side of the stage, and hundreds of smaller flags spread throughout the venue.  Toward the beginning, two local homeschool girls took the stage and led us in the “Pledge of Alligiance” and the “Star Spangled Banner”.

As all the people in the arena, and all the people outside the arena (easily hundreds of people!) took off hats and placed their hands over their hearts, I felt my skin tingle with goosebumps.  Suddenly, it became even more real to me what those words meant.

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.

Oh, 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?

I simply cannot describe the sensation I felt.  In my mind, I was thinking of the symbolism of the flag’s colors, and the blood it represented.  I was thinking of the great history of our great nation.  I don’t think anyone in our world today will ever understand the great risk that our forefathers took to give us this nation.  It wasn’t a simple matter of signing their names to the Declaration of Independence.  They were putting their lives at risk.  Not only their lives, but their homes, every penny they’d ever earned, even the lives of their families.

Many of them did give their lives for this nation that was only a dream.  Since then, many more have given their lives in defense of the cause of liberty.  The blood that was shed was a gift to me.  Every day I can wake up, in my bed, in my home, knowing that I am free and do not have to fear oppression, because of their sacrifice.

At the rally, I cried.  I bawled.  I cried because of their great sacrifices, and I cried from the great thankfulness that filled me.  Even now, my eyes are tearing up.  There are so many ways in which we complain about our nation.  We say there are problems in our economy or in our military, corruption in our government, flaws in our educational system.  But for all our imperfections, we live in a great nation.  I live in a great nation.