Let Freedom Ring

Let Freedom Ring

Not only today but every day, let’s celebrate the freedom we have in this country! What a beautiful country I live in! I love our freedom, the patriots of old and the patriots of new. I am grateful for their sacrifice and for the wisdom of our Founding Fathers. It is a privilege to live […]

V Stands for Veterans; V Stands for Valor

V Stands for Veterans; V Stands for Valor

The Valor of Veterans Down through the mists of time they come, marching to a distant drum. Soldiers, sailors, airmen, all, who stood to answer their country’s call. From the Revolutionary War days, through the War of 1812, The Civil War, World War I and World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan and Iraq, brave men […]

Keep Her Flying High

Keep Her Flying High

“You’re a grand old flag,” wrote George Cohan. I agree. Grand and beautiful and representative of freedom. Let’s stop a moment on this Flag Day to think about what our national banner means. To me, the Star Spangled Banner represents my Irish ancestors who left their own beautiful homeland and a heritage of centuries past, to […]

A Tight Grip on Freedom

A Tight Grip on Freedom

I hate war. I hate the thought of it: the separation from loved ones, the pain and death and cruelty and barbarism. What is at the heart of war? Why can we not live, each in his own country, peacefully? “War is hell,” said General Sherman. He should know. He certainly inflicted a lot of it on the […]

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields

Many years ago, I toured the battle site of the Battle of Vicksburg. Green, grassy knolls covered embankments from which cannons blazed death to opposing forces, a hundred years before. Once, the smoke of guns and the shouts and screams of dying and wounded men filled this battlefield. Now, all was quiet and birds sang. […]