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School Desks

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It's true!! http://www.snopes.com/glurge/nodesks.asp And bless her heart! [grin]

Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High School in Little Rock , did something not to be forgotten. On the first day of school, with permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor,
she took all of the desks out of the classroom. The kids came into first period, they walked in, there were no desks. They obviously looked around and said, "Ms. Cothren, where's our desk?" And she said, "You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn them." They thought, "Well, maybe it's our grades." "No," she said. "Maybe it's our behavior." And she told them, "No, it's not even your behavior."

And so they came and went in the first period, still no desks in the classroom. Second period, same thing, third period. By early afternoon television news crews had gathered in Ms. Cothren's class to find out about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of the classroom. The last period of the day, Martha Cothren gathered her class. They were at this time sitting on the floor around the sides of the room. And she says, "Throughout the day no one has really understood how you earn the desks that sit in this classroom ordinarily." She said, "Now I'm going to tell you." Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it, and as she did 27 U.S. veterans, wearing their uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. And they placed those school desks in rows, and then they stood along the wall. And by the time they had finished placing those desks, those kids for the first time I think perhaps in their lives understood how they earned those desks. Martha said, "You don't have to earn those desks. These guys did it for you. They put them out there for you, but it's up
to you to sit here responsibly to learn, to be good students and good citizens, because they paid a price for you to have that desk, and don't ever forget it." My friend, I think sometimes we forget that the freedoms that we have are freedoms not because of celebrities. The freedoms are because of ordinary people who did extraordinary things, who loved this country more than life itself, and who not only earned a school desk for a kid at the Robinson High School in Little Rock , but who earned a seat for you and me to enjoy this great land we call home, this wonderful nation that we better love enough to protect and preserve with the kind of conservative, solid values and principles that made us a great nation. "We live in the Land of the Free because of the brave" Remember our Troops...
 
I am a Veteran and have served over 30 years. I do NOT believe Veterans are looking for any pats on the back. They don't need parades and the such, I know all I have ever wanted is for the people to be like that teacher, to just understand. To appreciate the fact that "FOR THOSE WHO FIGHT FOR IT, FREEDOM HAS A FLAVOR THE PROTECTED WILL NEVER KNOW" (taken from a Marine's flak jacket, Vietnam) and not to take their FREEDOMS for granted. They can be taken away in a blink of an eye.
Not all battles are about FREEDOM, some are just about what is RIGHT versus what is wrong.
I think Veterans want to be respected as much as any other profession and not always bashed, accused and spat upon. Veterans are examples of people who got up off of their asses and did something to make the world a little bit better of a place. I am PROUD to be surrounded by people who really DO CARE, it makes me feel good everytime I put on the uniform.To know I am a member of a very SPECIAL GROUP of men and women.
Semper Fi
 
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Maybe it's the fact that I'm an economist, but I think that the really essential point here, once that far too many people manage to grasp, is that freedom isn't free. The reason that seems to go right over people's heads is because they never paid for it, nor do they realize whay someone else paid for it.

TNSTAAFL (There's no such thing as a free lunch) Just because you don't have to pay for something now doesn't mean you won't pay later, and if you don't have to pay then somebody else has or will pay. Most vets I served with don't care that much if people recognize what they paid, though we all know some who paid a lot more who we'd like to see get some. Their real concern is that people think that it's all free, which means that they or their children will end up paying dearly in the future.

Ken
 

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