The next time you look at our flag, think about this....

From a speech made by Capt. John S. McCain, US, (Rep) who represents Arizona in the U.S. Senate:

As you may know, I spent five and one half years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. In the early years of our imprisonment, the NVA kept us in solitary confinement or two or three to a cell. In 1971 the NVA moved us from these conditions of isolation into large rooms with as many as 30 to 40 men to a room. This was, as you can imagine, a wonderful change and was a direct result of the efforts of millions of Americans on behalf of a few hundred POWs 10,000 miles from home.

One of the men who moved into my room was a young man named Mike Christian. Mike came from a small town near Selma, Alabama. He didn't wear a pair of shoes until he was 13 years old.

At 17, he enlisted in the US Navy. He later earned a commission by going to Officer Training School. Then he became a Naval Flight Officer and was shot down and captured in 1967.

Mike had a keen and deep appreciation of the opportunities this country, and our military, provide for people who want to work and want to succeed. As part of the change in treatment, the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to receive packages from home. In some of these packages were handkerchiefs, scarves and other items of clothing. Mike got himself a bamboo needle.

Over a period of a couple of months, he created an American flag and sewed it on the inside of his shirt. Every afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup, we would hang Mike's shirt on the wall of the cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance. I know the Pledge of Allegiance may not seem the most important part of our day now, but I can assure you that in that stark cell, it was indeed the most important and meaningful event.

One day the Vietnamese searched our cell, as they did periodically, and discovered Mike's shirt with the flag sewn inside, and removed it. That evening they returned, opened the door of the cell, and for the benefit of all us, beat Mike Christian severely for the next couple of hours.

Then, they opened the door of the cell and threw him in. We cleaned him up as well as we could. The cell in which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle on which we slept. Four naked light bulbs hung in each corner of the room. As I said, we tried to clean up Mike as well as we could. After the excitement died down, I looked in the corner of the room, and sitting there beneath that dim light bulb with a piece of red cloth, another shirt and his bamboo needle, was my friend, Mike Christian. He was sitting there with his eyes almost shut from the beating he had received, making another American flag.

He was not making the flag because it made Mike Christian feel better. He was making that flag because he knew how important it was to us to be able to pledge our allegiance to our flag and country.

So the next time you say the Pledge of Allegiance, you must never forget the sacrifice and courage that thousands of Americans have made to build our nation and promote freedom around the world.

You must remember our duty, our honor, and our country.

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

What to Say to a Person Who Has Never Hunted

by Randall L. Eaton, Ph.D

Who is the greatest conservationist in the history of the world?

The answer is: "The best known hunter in the history of the world" - Teddy Roosevelt.

What few people know is that he was the first man to write about women's rights, the subject of his senior thesis at Harvard. The paradox perplexes ecofeminists.

Does hunting teach violence? What do you think Jimmy Carter and Nelson Mandela would say? They both received the Nobel Peace prize - and both are avid hunters.

In a questionnaire survey I did of 2500 hunters, average age of 55, 97% male, I asked what events in their lives opened their hearts and engendered compassion in them. The prevailing choice by women was "becoming a parent", but for men it was, "taking the life of an animal". The polarities of human life consist of women bringing life into the world and men taking life to support life.

For hundreds of thousands of years boys had to kill an animal of sufficient size to prove they could provide and thus qualify for manhood and marriage. Hunting is still the most profound rite of passage from boyhood to manhood.

The same survey revealed that 82% of recreational hunters thank the animals they kill or the Creator. The words they chose to express how they feel about the animals they hunt were, "respect", "admiration" and "reverence". Not unlike Native American hunters.

Michael Gurian, author of the best-selling "The Wonder of Boys", says in my TV production, "Respect and Responsibility: The Truth About Kids Who Hunt", that,

"Hunting teaches compassion".

In the same production, Dr. Don Trent Jacobs, revolutionary educator and author of "Teaching Virtues Across the Curriculum", states,

"Hunting is the ideal way to teach young people universal virtues including patience, generosity, courage, fortitude and humility."

He defines humility as 'knowing you are part of something greater than yourself'. At one time Jacobs directed the largest wilderness center in the world for juvenile delinquents.

The most successful program ever conducted for juvenile delinquents was at the "School for Urban and Wilderness Studies" in Southern Idaho. For 13 years groups of boys went into the wilderness with nothing but a sleeping bag and a pocketknife. Their only food was what they could gather or catch and kill. According to follow-up surveys conducted one year after they left, 85% of the boys had not got into trouble duringthat year.

Dr. Wade Brackenbury, who led the boys, is convinced that it was taking the lives of small animals for food that had the greatest influence on the boys' transformation.

Dr. Helen Smith of Knoxville wrote "Scarred Hearts". She is a leading authority on violent kids (who kill). In an interview in "Respect and Responsibility", she said,

"Columbine never would have happened if those boys had been properly mentored in hunting and shooting."

In the same production, Dr. Jim Rose, adolescent neuropsychologist at the University of Wyoming says,

"Hunting teaches self-control and respect for life,"

and,

"Learning to use a firearm teaches responsibility."

Dr. Scott Cutting, a psychologist in South Carolina, successfully used shooting to heal young men of serious aggression.

A few years ago, the BATF and FBI conducted a study and could not find a single instance of a young person committing a felony with a legally owned firearm, which indicates that kids mentored in hunting and shooting use firearms for the right reasons.

Gurian, Jacobs, Smith and Rose all highly recommend and endorse hunting and shooting for youth.

Which of the following well known Americans were hunters?

Thomas Jefferson
John James Audubon
David Thoreau
Teddy Roosevelt
George Eastman
John Steinbeck
Aldo Leopold
Clark Gable
Ernest Hemmingway
Jimmy Stewart
Jimmy Carter

That's right, all of the above.

Did you know that hunters were the original environmental conservationists and they still lead in that field? Did you know that 700,000 members of "Ducks Unlimited" have successfully conserved over 12 million acres of wildlife habitat to the benefit of the entire living community of North America?

That the "Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation" has conserved over four million acres and reintroduced elk throughout its former range in the midwest and eastern U.S.? That there may be more wild turkeys and deer in the U.S. than at any time in history?

When the rest of the environmental community is waging rear-guard actions, the hunting community is on the offensive. The truth is that hunting is a model for sustainability. For those who participate directly in it the food chain becomes a love chain.

Hunters put their money where their hearts are.

SAF Honors Jeanne Assam with Eleanor Roosevelt Award

BELLEVUE, WA – For her remarkable display of heroism and courage under fire, the Second Amendment Foundation announced today that it will recognize Jeanne Assam, who confronted a gunman on Dec. 9 at the New Life Church shooting in Colorado Springs, with the Eleanor Roosevelt Award.

The Roosevelt award was created by SAF founder Alan Gottlieb, co-author of America Fights Back: Armed Self-Defense in a Violent Age. The award honors exceptional women who use firearms in self-defense and the defense of others. The award is named in memory of former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who frequently carried a revolver for personal protection, even while she lived in the White House, and during the times that she campaigned in the South for civil rights.

“Jeanne Assam, an armed private citizen who volunteered to provide security at the New Life Church, was suddenly faced with a deadly emergency and without hesitation, disregarding her own safety, she rose to that challenge,” Gottlieb said. “By confronting a killer, Assam undoubtedly saved many lives.

“The news media, perhaps to try diminishing Ms. Assam’s bravery and the significance of her intervention, have revealed her dismissal as a Minneapolis police officer several years ago,” he added. “We concur with church Senior Pastor Brady Boyd, who observed that all of us have past experiences we may regret, and that she should not be ‘convicted or crucified for being a heroine.’ Today, the entire nation should be proud of Jeanne Assam, and grateful that her life’s path led from Minneapolis to Colorado Springs.

“Jeanne Assam did an incredibly brave thing under circumstances that could easily be described as above and beyond the call,” Gottlieb stated. “Every day in this country, armed private citizens defend themselves or others, frequently preventing or stopping crimes. Their actions go largely unrecognized and more frequently ignored by the press and public officials who would rather suppress the notion that Americans can fight back.

“We created the Eleanor Roosevelt Award to recognize the efforts of armed women who practice personal safety,” Gottlieb concluded. “In Jeanne Assam’s case, we are honoring a truly remarkable woman who placed herself in harm’s way for the safety of others. We are humbled by her good and noble deed.”

A Different Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,

I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,

I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps die d at ' Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..

Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."

"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.

For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."