Our Vision and Mission

The Cost of Freedom
Good to Know

'It is Important for All of US to Reflect on Those that Have Gone Before.  And for Those that Have Given US the Privilege and the Right to Be Here.
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Very Few People Around the World Enjoy Freedom.  WE in the United States are Very Very Fortunate - From the American Revolution On - To Have a Set of Freedoms that are Really Remarkable in Todays World and Throughout History.
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If You Think for Just a Minute:  That Any One of US Can Say Anything About me, or the President the United States, About the Pope, About Anyone in an Official Capacity.  That is Pretty Remarkable.  In Most Countries, If We Were to Do That, We Would Go to Jail, or We Would be Tortured, or Shot.  Very Few People have 'Freedom of Speech.'
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And That Freedom of Speech was Not Paid For by Our Donations or Our Taxes - That Freedom of Speech was Paid for in Blood.  
 

• It was Paid by Robert Hurlbut, a Kid from Cambridge.  He was Doctor in the Medical Service Corp in World War II.  And on 25 March 1945, He was Onboard the USS Halligan, Off Okinawa, and Struck a Mine and Killed Him.

   

• And That Freedom of Speech was Paid for by William Carlton, Who was in the Aircorp; Who was at the Tom, in the Philippines in 1942, When it was Over Run.  And He was Marched Dead as a Prisoner of War.

   

• And That Freedom of Speech was Paid for by Charles Sturgis, From Milton.  Who was Killed in Action by Machine Gun Action in Okinawa, as a Private in the United States Marine Corp in 1945.

   

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And Think About Reading the Morning Paper and Watching the Evening 'News.'  And Think of Our 'Freedom of Press.'   Our Freedom of Press was Not Paid for by the Pundit or the Reporter.

• It was Paid for by George Von Meyer, from Hamilton, Who was a Lieutenant Junior Grade.  And Off the Coast of the Philippines on Siarao Island in 1942, His Ship Took a Torpedo.  And He was Sent to the Bottom of the Ocean.

   

• And That Freedom was Paid for by Michael Silver.  Who was Killed in Action Over in Yugoslavia.  Also in 1942.

   

• Or William Lacroix.  Who Died of Wounds after a Kamikaze Struck his Ship in the Pacific.

   

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And if Any of Us have had Legal Troubles, or are Studying to Become a Lawyer.  A Great Freedom of Ours is that We are All Judged by a Jury of Our Peers.  And We are All Subject to Due Process of Law.  It is a Fundamental Right of America.  It is a Right that Few on Earth Enjoy.  And That Right Was Not Paid for by the Lawyer or the Judge.  It was Not Paid for by the Prosecutor or Defendant.

• It was Paid for by Orson Thomas.  Who was Killed in Action on Poke Island.

   

• Or Theodore Clement.  Who was Shot Down in His Bomber.

   

• It was Paid for by Phillip Burbank, in 1941, as a Young Private First Class in the 84th Division.  Who was Killed Storming a German Pillbox in the Siegfried Line.  And He was in the First Week of Combat.

   

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And Yet - As I Write this Surrounded by Love - And While WE may Not be Religious - 'I' Would Encourage ALL of Us to Either Go to Church or Mosque or Synagogue - Or Not Go.  Choose Not to Believe - Or to Believe.  Or Choose to Believe in Whatever You Want to Believe.  But OUR 'Freedom of Religion' was Not Paid for by the Priest or the Rabbi.

• It was Paid for by Patrick Staehle.  Who Fought with the French Army.  And was Killed in Action from the Southern France Campaign.

   

• Or Dwight MaCaffe .  Who was Killed in a B-25 Bomber, over Burma.

   

• Or Peter Meyer.  Who was a Private and Killed in the Battlefield of Baston; the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. 

   

• Our Freedom was Paid for by William Emerson.  Who was a Young Captain in the United States Marine Corp.  Who was Killed in 1960 as a Pilot, in Vietnam.

   

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And Many of Those Reading This Here Today.  Who have Brothers Who are Serving.  Or Sisters Who are Serving.  And Many of OUR Parents have Served.  And Many of US May Choose to Serve - Or May Not.  Or Maybe Already Do So in Their Own Way.
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But I Would Like to Ask that All of US Take a Moment to Remember Some of Those Names.  And Just Reflect for a Little Bit about How Privileged WE are as Americans to HAVE the Freedoms WE Have.
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Never Forget How We Got Them.  Who Paid for Them.  And HOW They were Bought.'
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