Seventy-six years ago, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack that would lead to World War II.
President Franklin Roosevelt labeled this attack by the Japanese as "a date that will live in infamy." But although this attack brought America into World War II, Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, convinced FDR that the Germans should be dealt with first. Before long, the United States was fighting wars on two fronts, one in Europe and one in the Pacific. Before the war ended in 1945, over 300,000 American serviceman had died, and countless more had suffered wounds.
Every American understood that the cost of freedom was high, but America, as always, was willing to pay the price.
Today, we live in a society that seems to have lost sight of the important things. We have NFL players refusing to stand for our National Anthem, and we have American citizens actively seeking to destroy our most revered institutions. Christianity is under attack along with our Constitution. Our educational institutions teach socialism and communism, things that we fought against in World War II and afterwards. Some are openly disloyal to our country and proclaim so openly, never realizing that this freedom was paid for in blood by people that they never knew three-quarters of a century earlier.
But America still has great people, patriotic people, who make this country the super power that it is today. In my opinion, we have a great generation of young people who have their heads in the right place. They are smart, inquisitive, loyal, and understand why America is the greatest country in world.
Most of all, they are patriotic. They honor the institutions that have made this country great, and perhaps most of all, they understand our country’s history. No other country in the world has a system of government where the people are in charge. When the people speak, the politicians listen. Politicians who fail to listen do so at their own peril.
America has always had men and women willing to step up to the plate and do the tough, often dirty jobs. One of these men was born in Edinberg, Mississippi.
His name was Van Thomas Barfoot. On the morning of May 23, 1944, Sergeant Barfoot won the highest military honor bestowed by the United States, the Medal of Honor.
His citation reads: "On the morning of May 23, 1944, when his company was involved in a firefight with German troops outside the town of Carano (Italy), Sergeant Barfoot moved ahead of his squad and knocked out two machine-gun emplacements, caused damage to a third machine gun, and caused enemy soldiers to abandon their positions and surrender. Later that day, he disabled a German tank with a grenade. Then he wiped out one of the enemy’s big guns with a demolition charge and finally helped two seriously wounded men from his squad walk to safety about a mile away. When the battle was over, he had killed seven German soldiers and captured seventeen."
But that is not the end of Van Barfoot’s story. When he was in his nineties, Barfoot moved to a house in Henrico County, Virginia, to be near his daughter. He displayed the U. S. Flag on a flag pole in his front yard.
Soon, the neighborhood association demanded that he take the flagpole down because it was distracting to the community. Barfoot refused. The association threatened court action. Still Barfoot refused.
Once this dispute made national news, high ranking politicians got involved. Even Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary said that "it was silly to prevent Colonel Barfoot from flying his flag." The neighborhood association had no choice but to surrender.
Before his death, Barfoot said, "All my life from childhood to now, I have been able to fly the American flag. In the time I have left, I plan to continue to fly the American flag without interference."
Barfoot is one of many great heroes who has made the State of Mississippi and our Nation proud.
