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Home of the free Flag United we stand


They paid the price!

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 the permission of the school 
superintendent, the principal and the building 
supervisor, she removed all of the desks out of 
her classroom. When the first period kids entered 
the room they discovered that there were no desks. 

Looking around, confused, they asked, 'Ms. Cothren,
where are our desks?' She replied, 'You can't have a 
desk until you tell me what you have done to earn the
right to sit at a desk.' They thought,  'Well, maybe it's 
our grades.'

'No,' she said.

Maybe it's our behavior.' She told them,
'No, it's not even your behavior.

And so, they came and went, the first period, second 
period, third period. Still no desks in the classroom.  

By early afternoon television news crews had started 
gathering in Ms. Cothren's classroom to report about 
this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of 
her room.

The final period of the day came and as the puzzled 
students found seats on the floor of the deskless 
classroom. Martha Cothren said, 'Throughout the day 
no one has been able to tell me just what he/she has 
done to earn the right to sit at the desks that are 
ordinarily found in this classroom. 
Now I am going to tell you.'

At this point, Martha Cothren went over  to the door 
of her classroom and opened it. Twenty-seven (27) 
U.S. Veterans, all in uniforms, walked into that class-
room, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets 
began placing the school desks in rows, and then 
they would walk over and stand alongside the wall.

By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in 
place those kids started to understand, perhaps for 
the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at 
those desks had been earned.

Martha said, 'You didn't earn the right to sit at these 
desks. These heroes did it for you. They placed the 
desks here for you. Now, it's up to you to sit in them. 
It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, 
to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you 
could have the freedom to get an education. 
Don't ever forget it.'

God Bless  America -- and Our Veterans!!

What Is A Veteran?

A  'Veteran,' whether active duty, discharged, retired, 
or reserve is 'someone who, at one point in his life, 
wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United 
States of America,' for an amount of 'up to and 
including his life.'

That is honor, and there are way too many people 
in this country today who no longer understand that fact.   


PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many
people as you can? It is Veteran's day and credit is due
to our U.S service men and women for our being able to enjoy our
freedom. Let' s try, in this small way, to pay a tiny bit of what we owe.
Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed
themselves for us.