[Raymond]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

JRutledge: You should be very proud of both of your parents. Very proud. They're both heroes.

During World War II, my Dad, my hero, an Army Staff Sergeant, fought his way from North Africa, across Sicily, and up the Apennine Mountains in Italy, over some of Europe's most difficult terrain under some of the worst weather conditions found anywhere during World War II. He was eventually awarded a medal for his heroism in the Battle of Rome (after which he traded his carbine for a typewriter after the Army discovered that he went to business school and could type).

As kids, every national holiday (they weren't always on Mondays back then) my Dad proudly displayed our family's (all three of his bothers served) American Flag, and he made a point of telling my brother and me why he was displaying the flag on that particular special day. He's no longer with us, so I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure that he didn't risk his life and didn't fight his way across Italy for a piece of red, white, and blue colored cloth, or a poem matched with music from a British song, that symbolized liberty, freedom, and justice; but rather, for the actual liberty, freedom, and justice, that we have in this wonderful country.

"With liberty and justice for all". Remember when we all recited that at the beginning of school every day? Did we mean it?

Your best post ever.