His name was Michael Charles ..!! The other was Gunnell Sanders ..!! And then there was John Allen …! Names I’m sure you don’t recognize, but men, whose lives in some way I can’t really explain, helped make us who we are today as Americans.

Michael was too old to fight in America’s Revolution, but he helped supply the Continental Army. Lieutenant Sanders rode against the British with the Virginia Militia! Private John Allen wore a blue uniform in the War Between The States. My daddy, Frank Sanders, fought in the Pacific against the Japanese. And I went to Vietnam, an unpopular war to say the least, mis-handled in its execution, but righteous in its cause. My son, Alan, served with the United States Air Force. And my other son, Jonathan , dedicates himself to serving all of America’s uniformed heroes by hosting this website and sending “Hero Packs” to men and women in the theaters of the War On Terror.

Our family roots run deep in America’s history! The flag is more than colored cloth. It is a symbol of our willingness to stand proud in the face of evil. It is a perpetual reminder of the hundreds of thousands of America’s finest, whose blood forever stains the soil of a dozen nations, not as conquerors, but as willing liberators.

We are Americans ..!! Memorial Day is not just hotdogs and a day off from work. It is remembrance and humility in the face of the sacrifice so many have made for us. It is the faraway strains of TAPS being sounded in tribute to those, who, forevermore, will never come home. It is a day set aside to remember those faces in the old black and white photographs Faces that will remain forever young, because they that’s how they left home, young and filled with courage ..!! And that’s how they never came home …..

Americans, we’ve got to recapture our hope …!! We’ve got to reestablish our values! The values of hard work and the desire for good; of faith and charity and right over wrong ..!! The only way the memory of those men and women, who lie under white crosses, will be dishonored, is if we lose what they died to keep.