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A jar of sand

In the perfect world of political correctness, the mothers of the grade school got together and agreed the Pledge of Allegiance before each class offended some children and their families.  They even stooped to the level of poisoning the minds of the kids.

One protest on the schoolyard had all of the kids, mostly bullied, to line up at the rear of the recess yard and not answer the lunch bell, all but one.  He stood his ground.  That day after school, he paid the price with a black eye and broken nose.  He got in a punch or two.  Looking up into a nearby tree, he smiled.

His mother gasped when he arrived home.  “Charlie, are you okay?”  “Sure Mom, everything is just fine.  Remember that dumb song Grandpa made up whenever the subject of dying would come up?”

Where do we go when we are gone?

Do we climb up in a tree?

Do we run in the sun, in the sand by the sea?

“You know, he might not have been too crazy after all”, he laughed.

“Did you get hit in the head?” she quizzed.

“Mom, you know that jar of sand Grandpa gave me before he died – can I take it to show and tell tomorrow?”

“Yes, please be careful is all I ask.  That was his greatest treasure and he entrusted it to you”.

Charlie proudly carried his jar of sand to school the next day.  It appeared that the principal was about to give in to the stupid demands of the protesting students until something magical happened.  Charlie asked the teacher if he could go last for show and tell.  Looking at the jar of sand, she wondered why.  It seemed that Charlie was always ahead of his time.

Charlie anxiously awaited his turn.  He began to speak.  “This jar has not been open since 1945 when my Grandpa came home from World War II.  He died last month and he gave me his jar of sand.  It is a jar of sand from the “Sands of Iwo Jima“.  He fought there and lost many of his friends.  Someday, I will return this sand to those once bloody beaches.  “Free sand” as Grandpa would say.”

“When you go home tonight, instead of playing games on the internet, ask your parents to search about Iwo Jima, Wake Island, or Normandy.  Have them show you a picture of the cemetery at Normandy.  Yes, you all have a right to not hold your hand over your heart and pledge allegiance to the flag and our country.  I have my right to say that pledge because my Grandpa fought for that right as well as the thousands like him that never returned home”.

The teacher always recorded show and tell.  She took Charlie’s speech to the principal.  A few nights later, the principal spoke before an auditorium packed with parents.  “I have made my decision but first I want you to hear something”.  He turned up the volume and played the show and tell recording.  There was not one dry eye in that auditorium.  Before the principal could speak, one of the parents stood.  “Our kids already told us.  We know your answer and we agree”.

The next day the bully came over to pint-size Charlie.  Charlie put up his fists to defend himself as the bully smiled and shook his hand.

Charlie looked up in the tree and smiled.

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