Everyone age 16 and over remembers the horrors of 9/11, and how all of our lives were changed because of this terrorist attack. Mary and I were living in Atlanta at the time enjoying the good life with our retired friends. Yet, after the towers became a pile something seemed missing. We felt we needed to be where at least some of our family lived.
We have always been close to our family but none of them lived in Atlanta on any where near there! Two of our sons lived in Brentwood, so we sold our house and moved to Tennessee. Since then our third son moved here and we are trying to encourage our daughter to come here too. Through all this we came to realize that all Americans are part of our family and we lost almost 3,000 of them that September morn! Just seeing the towers go down again and the agony on the faces of those escaping the falling buildings still brings tears to my eyes, and always will.
But, my spirits were lifted this morning when I looked out and saw the The Red, White, and Blue of Old Glory waving on our front lawn and on our neighbor’s lawns as well.
The first weekend we moved into this house our door bell rang and some marching-band students from our local high school, Ravenwood, told us about their flag program. For $40 a year they would place a flag on our lawn on the morning of Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day and remove it at sundown. They have done it faithfully since then, but this year they decided to place the flags today rather than Labor Day.
Seeing so many large flags in our neighborhood shows us we really are one people and helps us remember how important dedication to our country is. We have flown our own flag on our front step most holidays in the past, but the uniformity of those from the band kids is in some way special!
If you live in the Ravenwood School District and do not fly a flag please call the high school and get on their list. It is a small contribution and we like it much better than the candy sales, the magazine drives, or the other fund raisers high schools have.
If you do not live in our district, contact your school or church youth group and see if they would like a wonderful, team building, country honoring fund raiser. They will appreciate your suggestion, and so will all your neighbors. If you would like more info contact me (via comments below or e-mail) and I will put you in touch with someone who knows more about the Ravenwood project.
Let me thank you in advance.