John Wayne where are you...

Picture if you will John Wayne standing in front of a large wall draped with an American Flag, speaking in his familiar drawl the following words:

Why Are You Marching Son?

THAT's a pretty potent question and can be answered on both sides of the fence. So when you ask it of a young rebel, he may come back with answers that run the gamut from political corruption to social unrest.

I think that a certain amount of questioning of our nation's direction and purpose is healthful, and I for one respect young people for wanting to effect change. If they don't mind however, I'd kind of like to ask them where they intend to go. If you march wildly because you want social reform and have no plan to better the social conditions that already exist, it might be better to stay home. It seems to me that a whole lot of our marches of the sixties have sure discovered that the political process of America, encompassing in its purpose the search for the best common good for all of us, may be slow and a bit tedious, but most effective in the long run.

Now if you take up arms and march for your country when she calls on you, that's a whole new ballgame. To me it means that you've already accepted the belief that your nation is on the right track for you and that you want to keep it there.

Maybe we've had "right" wars and "wrong" wars in our two-hundred-year history, and even now it's only conjectural to say how they will be evaluated a thousand years from now. But I can't help feel for example that our country wouldn't be worth much today if we would have sat back on December 7, 1941, and said, "Ah shucks, maybe we should see it from their viewpoint."

And so we marched again, just as we'd done at Valley Forge and at Belleau Wood. The millions of Americans who were transformed from fuzzy cheeked youths into formidable fighting men, marched to preserve their country and preserve it they did.

I just wish that our dissenters would recognize a darned interesting point. America didn't keep up that huge army of civilian soldiers, but in remarkably quick time returned them to civilian life. We marched when we had to and then quit marching.

Again, I'd like to ask those dissenters to think about a thing called honor. You can't put it in a sandwich and you can't hold it in your hand. You either have it or you don't and you, alone, are the one who knows. If you think it's honorable to question a commitment made by your Government to a foreign power, that's certainly your buisness. All I ask of you is don't consider that young boy who is fighting for you in some faraway land either a fool or a patsy. In my book, no matter how you may look at it, I feel that he's making it possible for the rest of us to enjoy the luxury of deciding to which tune we will march.

Don't know about you, but that kinda sends goose bumps up and down my spine. Hearing those words, spoken by this man, relights that patriotic flame in me everytime. Whether you liked him or hated him, you can't deny his direct effect of millions of Americans when it came to setting a "Hollywood" figure who spoke for America.

For more of the words John Wayne spoke please click on the link below. I promise you won't regret it.

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