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Here's my speech from today---but first, I must say how PROUD I WAS, and am to be affiliated with such fine people. RedWing, you did an awesome job marshalling us to action...Inertia is a powerful force to overcome...

Second, Standing up on the "soapbox" and seeing so many people, at first made me a little weak in the knees, plus I had to go..really bad!---but, when we all chanted USA-USA-USA and I knew it was going to be fine--I closed my eyes and imagined the whole crowd naked...LOL!

WE THE PEOPLE, of FreeRepublic did a GOOD THING today. The veterans and parents of young men and women OVER THERE TODAY, thanked us for doing what we did today. We have LET THE Troops know, that we are FOR them...Those Moms and Dads will write to their sons and daughters and tell them of this day, of what we did FOR THEM...God Bless America and ALL who sail in her...GRRRRR

Thanks for the intro---

Wow, what a great crowd---ARE YOU PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN TODAY?
I know I am...

Before you stands a PROUD AMERICAN—with a “BORN ON DATE” of January 6, 1994. Yes, Yes, I know I don’t look that young...but, I remember that specific date because...just a few yards from here, I stood with over a hundred other people, raised my right hand and took the OATH of Allegiance that all naturalized American citizens take. I swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic—a few short minutes later I became an American Citizen by choice. You see AMERICA is the only country in the world that people RISK THEIR LIVES to get into...why is that? BECAUSE WE ARE A FREEDOM LOVING PEOPLE IN A FREE COUNTRY!!

There was a time when I never gave a thought about what it meant to be an AMERICAN...
As a teenager and a young adult, “BEING an American” didn’t mean much to me UNTIL Ronald Reagan was inaugurated.

The Reagan years brought to all Americans, an awareness of what the AMERICAN CIVILIZATION really was...a rugged individualism, a sense that WE THE PEOPLE could accomplish many great things,.... if only we would Dream it, we could DO it! Reagan’s vision for the future of America embodied what the SPIRIT of the American people could do to make the impossible, possible.

Then just a few years later, when Bill Clinton moved into the White House, I knew I had to do something—and after a heated discussion with one of my Favorite Liberals, this lady reminded me that I had NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN, because I was NOT an AMERICAN and I couldn’t vote, I couldn’t say a word...
Well that did it...she was right...and less than a year later, January 6, 1994, I became an American CITIZEN...and nothing has been the same since. Today, I am a VOTER, I have a VOICE in my future, I have a VOICE in my COUNTRY!

Today I am a PROUD AMERICAN, when I see MY PRESIDENT speaking, I can see the Pride and Love he has for his country, his wife and his family. I can see his eyes sparkle with his vision for America, a place where we can be safe, a place were we can voice our differing opinions but still agree that the God given right to be FREE is NOT JUST FOR AMERICANS!

Today is NOT JUST another Saturday in America. Just as September 11 altered the course of history for Americans and the world, the LIBERATION OF IRAQ will alter the course of history for the Iraqi people and, perhaps, the entire Middle East. George W. Bush has a VISION FOR AMERICA and for that, I am PROUD TO SEE AMERICANS HERE TODAY that SUPPORT HIM and DEFEND him and Pray for him!

Many people will pass this day doing family chores and the like, however, WE THE PEOPLE have decided to come here and BE PROUD AMERICANS. WE THE PEOPLE are excersizing our FREEDOM of SPEECH, just like “those people” who blocked Lake Shore Drive...except WE THE PEOPLE have a message of optimism and hope, a message for those who support Duty, Honor and Country—our Military...for as someone else said, “it is they who keep us free, not the journalist”...

I’d like to close with something from the Gipper,
President Ronald Reagan, who said this at his State of the Union Address on January 25, 1984.

“I've never felt more strongly that America's best days and democracy's best days lie ahead. We're a powerful force for good. With faith and courage, we can perform great deeds and take freedom's next step. And we will. We will carry on the tradition of a good and worthy people who have brought light where there was darkness, warmth where there was cold, medicine where there was disease, food where there was hunger, and peace where there was only bloodshed.

Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.