a new opening page

Gold Star Flag

It was just an insignificant, small piece of cloth mixed in with assorted small items on the table of miscellaneous objects such as is often found in thrift stores. It was definitely out of place in such a setting. It was a simple small flag with a single gold star on a white back ground. The price was just a few cents but had it been many times more I couldn’t have left it there.
Why? Because of what it symbolizes.

It represents a young American who gave his life fighting for his country. It symbolizes a mother or wife who waited at home for one who never returned from war. It speaks of that dreaded notice that tears at the heart and shatters hopes, as one is informed that there will be no joyous homecoming.
But it also says that Americans place a value on the freedom for which others before them, have paid so dearly. It shouts that tyrants who consider Americans complacent and soft, do so at their own peril.

At the rear of the thrift store were boxes and barrels of goods that never sold and were destined to be hauled to the dump.
Maybe I’m just an old, sentimental softy, but I couldn’t bear to think of this bit of cloth suffering such a fate.
It now lies folded away in a drawer, and when I run across it from time to time, I pause for a moment to remember all those of my own kin and acquaintance, who have been represented by their own gold star flags. In my mind, I stand proudly and salute the Gold Star Flags in so many of America's homes, and also those small national flags flying so valiantly on this Memorial day in cemeteries across our nation and on foreign soil.

May God watch over our nation, her leaders, and the men and women who so proudly serve that our liberty may be assured.

freddie