A Lesson in Old-Fashioned American Patriotism

I once heard a preacher tell of an incident that he lived through as a child. His father was a veteran of World War II. In fact, his father had been forced to endure the Baton Death March and was held prisoner by the Japanese for a long period of time.

One day when our preacher friend was about ten years old, he and his father went to enjoy the great American past-time. They went to watch a baseball game. As the game was gearing up to begin, the announcer came online and introduced the singer who would be performing the national anthem. As the singer moved toward the microphone, the crowd stood to honor the flag and the anthem. The entire crowd took to their feet except for a few small groups of disrespectful people...

A small group of men who were seated directly in front of our preacher and his father, continued goofing and carrying on as before. As the anthem sounded throughout the stadium, these men refused to show any signs of respect or courtesy.

The preacher's father was immediately irate! He curled both hands into fists and with all of his strength he punched two of the men right in front of him in the back of the head. It knocked them down. Before they could even begin to stand back up, he quickly returned to the position of attention and placed his hand back over his heart.

The young boy was terrified. As soon as these guys stand back up, his father was going to be beaten by these men. When the men stood up, however, they looked at his father with his hand over his heart and immediately stood up tall and placed their hands over their own hearts. Several men seated nearby followed suit.

After the ball game the young boy asked his father, "Dad. I thought for sure that when you hit those men that they were going to beat you up! Why did you do that dad? It was really dangerous."

"Son," he replied, "I traveled half-way around this world and fought for that flag, watched my buddies get killed for that flag, and I stood ready to die for that flag. I may not be on the other side of the world, but my opinion of that flag hasn't changed one bit!"

At work on Friday morning, another soldier showed me the following video. Just as in the story above, this is another great example of Old-Fashioned American Patriotism! I applaud the man in this video and I hope that everyone in America takes a lesson from him. Don't ever be afraid to stand up for America!




In Christ,

Nick