Hey guys, I'm migrating from THR, first post on APS!
Anyhow, I just figured I'd let you guys in on something.
Let me go ahead and state that I am a 17 year old high school senior (and I try my best responsible shooter and encourage others my age to do the same!) in North Carolina.
Our school recently hosted an outsanding ceremony in honor of Veterans' Day. However, some students were prevented from attending the ceremony. Such an event resulted in my writing of a letter to the principal of the school, as well as the OIC of the school's AFJROTC Squadron, and I would like to share the the issue with the members here.
Anyhow, on to the letter:
November 13, 2006
On November 9, 2006, Northern Nash High School hosted a Veterans Day Ceremony. Northern Nashs own Lt. Col. Griffin organized a ceremony to honor our nations veterans. Honorable guests included representatives of the VFW, North Carolina District 25 Representative Bill Daughtridge, as well as members of other AFJROTC units from across Nash County.
As a student at Northern Nash, I would have been proud to have been able to attend such a ceremony. Unfortunately, not all Northern Nash students were given that opportunity. While some classes were dismissed for students to attend the ceremony, other classes were kept in place. I was a student in such a class. Assuming that this was an oversight, the question was raised as to whether or not our class would be attending, and we were promptly told No.
Veterans Day is a day in which we, as Americans, may honor our troops, those who are currently serving, have served, and especially those who have fallen in the defense of our nation and its freedoms freedoms such as the right to even choose the very school we are attending, which classes we take, and how we even think in school.
On Thursday, November 9, Sgt. 1st Class Rudy A. Salcido, 31, Sgt. Courtland A. Kennard, 22, and Staff Sgt. Gregory W. G. McCoy, 26 were killed in Baghdad, Iraq by improvised explosive devices& while we sat in class. Two other service members, Sgt. Bryan Burgess, 35, and Cody Warren, 19, both Marines, were reported to be killed by sniper fire, with official confirmation still pending, again, while we sat in class. One of these is a Marine who was barely out of high school, and just two years older than me.
While these heroes died for our country, we were forced to remain in class studying material that in no way could have determined whether or not students would pass or fail the class and did nothing to pay respect to those fallen heroes. Being a person who was raised to believe in patriotism, to honor the heroes of our nation, and understand the value of our freedoms, I feel that remaining in a classroom during such an honorable ceremony, with no acknowledgement whatsoever of the event, is extremely disrespectful to our nation as well as those currently defending it. Veterans Day is a holiday important enough to warrant the closing of schools, as well as other facilities, in honor of all of those who have served our nation in the Armed Services.
I hope that in the future students will at least be given the opportunity to choose. That in itself is one of those freedoms for which hundreds of thousands of Americans have died The right to choose.
Sincerely,
Dean Frymyer
I figured that I would start off with sending this to the first two persons mentioned above, but if it comes down to it, I may ship it off to the VFW or even Representative Daughtridge.
This is my first form of formal protest... How did I do?
