Good morning, campers!
The subject of this post concerns the landing of the space shuttle Discovery yesterday at Kennedy Space Center. If you missed the landing, you missed one helluva show!
It was 20 years ago this year — January 28, 1986 to be exact — that the space shuttle Challenger exploded. I was working at the Pentagon at the time, in uniform, when this tragedy went down. The general in charge of our office told us the terrible news. I’m not ashamed to admit I broke down and cried that day; the sadness of the event was overwhelming for me and everyone else in the office. Shortly thereafter, I had to leave the office and make my way to Walter Reed for a medical appointment. I remember listening to the radio and the DJs asking everyone who was driving to turn on their headlights. As long as I live, I’ll never forget seeing nearly every single car with its headlights on.
I think the reason I’m “all choked up” has to do with being an American. No, no … I’m not going to break in song and belt out Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A. (I’m Proud to Be an American).” Still, I will say this: I AM proud to be an American! When we bring our astronauts home, I get all choked up. When I drove to Amsterdam this weekend and saw the “Welcome Home, Mike” signs and the American flags, I got all misty eyed and sat up a little taller in the driver’s seat of my truck. When I hear the Star Spangled Banner, my hand is on my heart and those lyrics leave my mouth at full volume and yes, slightly off key.
Folks, I’ve lived from coast to coast–everywhere from San Francisco to New York, from Kansas to Maryland. Thirteen states in all. I’ve seen the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. I’ve witnessed amazing acts of kindness and good deeds, as well as the horrible side of human nature. I’ve witnessed America, in all her glory and splendor.
Yes, this American Woman does get all choked up inside and that’s the way I want it to stay. I never want to the one who’s chewing gum and talking to the guy next to me at the ball park when the Star Spangled Banner is playing. I never want to miss a space shuttle launch or landing. I’ll never miss the opportunity to vote. I’ll take from America, and give back in good measure.
I’m feeling very patriotic today and hope you are as well. And with that, I’ll leave you with the words to the Star Spangled Banner:
O 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?
On the shore dimly seen thro’ the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation;
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
