Fw: FREE FLAG 10/1/01 Please read all

> Subject: The Flag
>
> >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 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."
>
> PASS THIS ON!!!!!!