And the Flag was still there!

September 12, 2009 - 6:30 am

12^th Street to 6^th Street and thereabouts....
mild and balmy....
quiet and still...
I walked to find a Dunkin Donuts....
Trickles of humanity with flags and signs,walking north in ones and twos on sidewalks....Streets still quiet, But looking left and right, larger groups of people, dressed in red, white and blue starting to appear from far-off blocks surrounding Pennsylvania Ave...

My heart began to feel excitement....
Could this be the beginning of freedom...
I exited with my coffee and there to my left was a huge American flag, 3 blocks down with feet below it, travelling down Pennsylvania Ave...
America was here.... on the march....voting and speaking 'with their feet...."
Thank God I had 'gotten off the couch' and come.....
Five minutes later, I heard my name...a sister of mine had gotten on the 'night train' from Boston.... exclaiming, "I had to come!"
My sister had gotten off the train at Union station. She said at least 150 people got off the train dressed in red, white and blue, from Connecticut,
from New Jersey, from New York, from Massachusetts...with signs of patriotism....
She asked them, "where are you going.' And a voice responded, "Towards Freedom...join us!"
And we did....
The crowd gathered at Freedom Plaza, originally planning for the march to begin at 11 am...
The crowd became so thick, that the police had the march begin about 9 am....
By that time, all we could see were huge groups of patriots coming from all directions, north, south, east, and west, toward Pennsylvania Ave.
They came by the busloads, by train, by plane.... they came by foot...
on crutches, in wheel chairs, with canes and strollers...young families with infants strapped to their chests in snugglies, small flags attached to young toddlers'
jackets.... a senior I spoke to had been on a bus from Kansas for 16 hours, 4 shots of Insulin later.... he graced the steps of Pennsylvania Ave.
The crowd grew...
I marched with two courageous sisters, and then we stepped out of the march, stood on the sidelines and held our signs high above our heads....
Our signs read, "and the flag was still there..."
As patriots passed, they began to sing the Star Spangled Banner.... hundreds of marchers took pictures of the sign we held, with tears in their eyes.... yes, they chanted, 'and the flag was still there....'
These patriots were not "Astroturf" as Nancy Pelosi had said; these patriots were not thugs; these patriots came to their capitol to reclaim their Freedom....
This was Concord, this was Lexington, this was human spirit at its finest hour....
clean, pure, and well intentioned....
Yes, we marched.... 1.3 million of us....
And as we marched by the archives building and read with pride the first article of the Constitution, we fully realized how our forefathers felt as they
laid down their lives ...and their names.... on The Constitution....

Dearest patriots,
Freedom is like fresh air.... No one talks about how precious the air is that we breathe until we are short of breath. Once we experience that 'gasping’ of breath,
we speak of air as being precious.... so it is with Freedom. We have taken our precious freedom for granted for many years....
But Freedom is not free;
I cannot - I shall not - ask our brave men and women to die in Afghanistan and Iraq to defend our freedom if I am not willing to fight for my freedom here at home...
The march on September twelfth was the beginning.... only the beginning....
now we must take to the phones, make calls to our congressmen, our senators, the 'gang of six."
Yes, this is a 'call to arms; and I ask you to join me...
so that our children and our grandchildren will breathe the air of freedom for the rest of their lives...
Kindly follow the links above titled "Contact Info" to reach your Senators and Congressmen....

God Bless YOU and God Bless America....