Often I get my current events from our custodian who raises the flag every morning. The days he stops the flag half way up the pole, I'll ask, "Who now?"
"Another kid in [name someplace]," is always the answer.
It's tough to pass through the front doors and head up the stairs knowing a percentage of the kids who sit in my classroom could become cannon fodder. Indeed, many of the boys who have been in my classes have expressed a desire to serve in the military. I think that's great when it's the best of a lot of choices and not the only real choice. Our flag in mourning makes me work harder to educate these kids straight into the genuine freedom of choice.
(The above shots are from Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The first image captures the graves of unknown soldiers.)
My World Tuesday
28 Comments
Your post for the day isn't showing up, are you having some computer problems? Hope not, they are a real pain in the whatever!!
ReplyDeleteSylvia
Ah, now I can see it! And what a great and very moving post it is! I remember feeling much the same way when I was teaching. Thanks for sharing, Sandy! Enjoy your day!
ReplyDeleteSylvia
This is a sobering post. We definitely need to remember these 'kids' who put their lives on the line to protect all of us.
ReplyDeleteand I am greatful to each and everyone of them, past and current
ReplyDeletewhat an impressive sight. bleached a bit me mind, thank you.
ReplyDeleteplease have a good tuesday.
daily athens
fyi your posts don't show up for readers if you are working on them after posting them. I get that all the time as I go back in to correct spelling, etc. There are many kids who have died in giving service to their country...now and years ago.
ReplyDeleteSigh.. I think about this each and every day with my military son. I try not to worry too much.. not yet, anyway.
ReplyDeleteYou said that well, Sandy. It makes my heart drop a few inches when I hear of another kid going down for heaven knows what.
ReplyDeletewell Sandy that was poignant and I like your attitude to help and change
ReplyDeleteSomewhere in the world some mother's son is lost, someone's brother gone, someone's father never to return. A sad, sobering thought.
ReplyDeleteAmazing shots - that first one is very powerful.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, yet melancholic images.
ReplyDeleteI guess many think the same way as you do. Even here I get affected by the stories of young Danish men that never return home from the line of fire...
xo
Great post with wonderful shots. Military is one establishment that commands lot of respect.
ReplyDeleteI have beem in the Va hosp They remogeled mehave f\ Art Info,, LLOYD
ReplyDeleteYour kids are lucky to have you Sandy. You care not only about getting through the day, week, year but their lives. You are a treasure trove in their lives.
ReplyDeleteWonderful post!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, yet melancholic images.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice week,
Greetings, Bram
My Word Tuesday post
Seen on My World Tuesday
Touching...
ReplyDeletewish all this would stop.
Sad thoughts. God bless our children
ReplyDeleteThis is very sad.
ReplyDeleteSadder still are the kids who get killed on the street for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Our community still has police everywhere and they are walking door to door asking people who batted our little Laura in the head and killed her.
She was walking through a little forest to see a football game at around noon.
That is the third time someone was assaulted around here with a bat.
You have my solidarity, Sandy.
ReplyDeleteStrange, but my Tuesday post
is also about local boys
who went to war.
Warm Aloha from Waikiki, my friend
Comfort Spiral
Thank you for this post. I feel the same way the mornings I make the turn on the highway and see way up on the hill our flag at half mast. My heart sinks those mornings as I sit there in traffic watching it blow about in the wind.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt your kids will learn lots from your words.
Beautiful, yet sobering photos.
Thank you, as always for sharing.
And the flag outside our school has been at half-staff for a while now. It saddens me.
ReplyDeleteLove not war
ReplyDeleteLLOYD
I think it would be sad to be reminded daily like that, then again we should all think of it more often. Many of the weddings we shoot have military people, young boys, children, and I worry about them all the time, I worry for their new spouses - so far they are all still safe. One gets deployed again this month.
ReplyDeleteEvery picture tells a story. Some of them unbearably sad....
ReplyDeleteheart wrenching.
ReplyDeleteIn the Navy, we used to hoist the flag all the way to the top of the yardarm or flag pole, and then lower it to half mast on the mornings when we were commemorating the dead.
ReplyDeleteIt always seemed to me like the flag all the way up was our country saluting our people; and then, it was like the country bowed its head in honor of the deceased, and then kept it bowed the rest of the day. At sunset, the flag went back up to full staff, where it paused, and then we lowered it for the night.
It was always special, silent and to me, very moving.
-Greg
Thanks for being here.