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JUNE 30, 2010
THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL THE MAN WHO SAVED JULY 4TH
CAESER RODNEY AMERICA’S NATIONAL PARKS
YOSEMITE
AMERICAN PATRIOT CAESER RODNEY THE MAN WHO SAVED JULY 4TH
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6 THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL
AMERICA’S NATIONAL PARKS
YOSEMITE
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THE FIRST LADY OF
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AMERICAN PATRIOT
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14 QUOTE OF THE WEEK
15 THIS WEEK IN AMERICAN HISTORY
CAESER RODNEY THE MAN WHO SAVED JULY 4 4 AMERICAN PATRIOT
You’ve surely heard of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. But did you know that another man — Caeser Rodney of Delaware — had an equally important all-night ride to save the Declaration of Independence? When Caesar Rodney was 17 years old,
mission when the vote on the Declaration
his father died and he was placed under
of Independence began, he heard that his
the guardianship Nicholas Ridgely, the
two Delaware cohorts were deadlocked —
Clerk of the Peace for Kent County, thus
one for and one against. Rodney then
beginning Rodney’s interest in politics.
made history: he dramatically rode eighty
Born on his father’s farm in Dover DE,
miles through treacherous thunderstorms
Rodney never had a formal education. This
to arrive at the meeting on July 2 right in
did not stop him from delving into the
time for the final vote. His vote to pass
riotous political world of the mid-1700’s.
document was crucial.
Rodney was commissioned by the royal
A poem recounts the tale:
government to serve as High Sheriff of Kent County at the age of 22. Success
Answered Rodney then; “I will ride with
in this role led to additional duties —
speed; It is Liberty's stress; it is Freedom’s
received added duties including Registrar
need.” “When stands it?” “To-night.”
of Wills, Clerk of Orphan’s Court, Recorder
“Not a moment to spare, But ride like
of Deeds, and Justice of Peace. As his
the wind from Delaware.” — Anonymous
title grew, so did his notoriety. As talk of rebellion grew, Rodney was asked to join
Rodney remained instrumental in the
the patriotic delegation composing the
movement for independence after his ride.
Stamp Act and became the head of the
Elected as Governor of Delaware, he sent
Delaware Committee of Correspondence.
troops, money, and supplies to the Continental Government. His health declined
Rodney was then elected to the Continental
rapidly, and he died in his home in 1784.
Congress from 1774 until 1776. Though
In 1999, Delaware engraved Rodney’s
he was home in Delaware on a military
famous ride onto their state Quarter.
AMERICAN PATRIOT 5
THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL 6 AMERICAN PATRIOT
The “Wall” as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is often referred to is not a war memorial so much as a tribute to those who served, both living and dead. It is considered one of the most successful monuments of its kind in the world.
President Jimmy Carter signed the legislation that allocated the space for the memorial in the Constitution Gardens near the Lincoln Memorial on July 1, 1980, and groundbreaking began shortly thereafter. The memorial was paid for completely by 275,000 private contributions from individual Americans. The main criteria for the memorial was that it be a place that was reflective and contemplative in character, able to harmonize with the surroundings, contain the names of those who died or missing, and make absolutely no political statement about the war. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund chose Maya Lin’s design out of about 14,000 entries. Lin was a Yale undergraduate student who received a B on the project; however the judges unanimously chose her piece.
The wall stands 10 feet tall and 250 feet long. It has 58,267 names of dead and missing soldiers arranged chronologically according to the date of casualty or the date they were reported missing. Each name on the wall is denoted with a symbol of their status: diamonds mean that their death was confirmed whereas the cross indicates that they are missing or have prisoner status. Some veterans found the wall to be too abstract, so a representational statue of three servicemen was added to the memorial in 1984. The three servicemen statue is modeled from composites of several diverse soldiers back from war. An Army nurse, Diane Evans, campaigned for the representation and remembrance of the thousands of women who served in Vietnam. A statue of three uniform women with a wounded soldier was later added to the site.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL AMERICAN PATRIOT 7
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AMERICA’S NATIONAL PARKS
YOSEMITE
8 AMERICAN PATRIOT
Before the Europeans arrived, the Ahwahneechee tribe recognized Yosemite for its beauty and resources. In the mid-1800’s Europeans started to travel to the valley to gaze at its greatness. In 1851, the Mariposa Battalion of the U.S. Army removed the native American tribe from the valley, and the land began to be mined for minerals. The destruction of this glorious place sparked the conservation movement in the 1890’s. John Muir was instrumental in helping to establish Yosemite as a national park. Muir is so closely associated with Yosemite park — after all, he helped draw up its proposed boundaries in 1889, wrote the magazine articles that galvanized public opinion and led to its creation in 1890, and co-founded the Sierra Club in 1892 to protect it. Later, he befriended President Teddy Roosevelt, hosted him for a famous camping trip deep into Yosemite, and convinced Roosevelt to add the part to the newly developing national parks system. Today, Yosemite acts as a researchers dream and an adventurers ideal. The park supports over 400 species of wildlife including vertebrates, mammals, reptiles, and birds. The biodiversity is attributed to the varying habitats within the park. With 1,169 square miles or about the size of Rhode Island, the rich habitats range from conifer forests to expanses of alpine rock to thick foothill chaparral. Yosemite also houses three groves of over 500 individual giant sequoia trees, some estimated to be 1,800 years old. There are also several large waterfalls in Yosemite, but the biggest and most popular is Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfall in North America standing at 2,425 feet. It is the seventh tallest waterfall in the world.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND JOHN MUIR ON GLACIER POINT IN YOSEMITE
There are 800 miles of trail within the park for hikers and backpackers to frolic along. The tallest peak in the park is Mt. Lyell with an elevation of 13,114 feet. For those not willing to camp on the ground, there are eight lodges dispersed through the park. Last year almost 3.9 million tourists visited the park. CLICK HERE FOR A VIDEO DEPICTING YOSEMITE FALLS
AMERICAN PATRIOT 9
THE FIRST LADY OF
NASCAR
The “Good ol’ Gal” remembers her racing days fondly. Louise Smith once said of her career: “I enjoyed every minute of it.” When no one thought it was possible for a woman to race in NASCAR, the southern belle from Greenville SC took on anything that had wheels. By the time she retired, she had 38 victories to her name.
10 AMERICAN PATRIOT
In 1946, Smith borrowed her husband, Noah’s, car against his wishes. He was notoriously against her career in racing. She drove down to Daytona to watch the races, and ended up entering them herself. She wrecked the new car and was discovered by her angry husband because the newspapers splashed the crash on the front page of the Greenville paper before she had returned home. This was the first of many crashes: in one race, she flipped her car and earned herself 48 stitches and four pins in her knee. Smith raced on from 1949 until 1965 It all started in the 1940’s, when the
making friends and admirers in anything
racing promoter Bill France was looking
from midgets to modifieds to sportsmans.
for women to spice up attendance at
She made a brief return in 1971 to spon-
an early event in NASCAR’s history. He
sor cars for numerous drivers on the way
got word that Louise Smith, a Greenville
up. In 1999, Smith was inducted into the
local, was well-known for speeding around
International Motorsports Hall of Fame
the city and often outrunning the cops.
in Talledaga AL. Louise Smith died in
France recruited her for the race and she
April 2006 of cancer at the age of 89.
finished third. So inexperienced was she, Smith did not know what the checkered
CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL OF THE HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
flag meant, she kept going after winning until someone threw out a red flag onto the course.
CLICK HERE TO SEE A VIDEO OF A CHILDREN’S BOOK ABOUT LOUISE SMITH
AMERICAN PATRIOT 11
THE MOST TRUSTED MAN IN AMERICA 12 AMERICAN PATRIOT
During his long career, Walter Cronkite earned the sobriquet as the “most trusted man in America.” He worked for CBS for 31 years and reported on every major news event from 1950 until 1981. His specials on the Vietnam War, Apollo XI, and JFK earned him near legendary status amongst his audience. And as the first journalist on air to report on President Kennedy’s assassination, he broke new ground by discarding the usual journalist objectivity to shed tears over Kennedy’s death. Born in St. Joseph MO on November 4, 1916, Cronkite attended school in Houston TX. He attended the University of Texas at Austin and worked at the school newspaper. Dropping out during junior year, Cronkite began as a radio announcer for several stations in Oklahoma City, OK. He then took a job with the United Press International in 1937, and became one of the best known American reporters of World War II. He was even chosen by the U.S. Army to accompany bombing raids over Germany in B-17s. The dean of newsmen, Edward R. Murrow, had been watching the young journalist evolve, and when Cronkite returned from war he was asked to join the CBS affiliate in Washington D.C. On the evening of April 16, 1962, Cronkite succeeded Douglas Edwards as the CBS Evening News anchorman. He lived the anchor job. Cronkite had remarkable influence in world affairs. President Lyndon Johnson once
said in terms of support for the Vietnam War, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost America.” Years later, he interviewed the Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat in 1977, who expressed interest in going to Jerusalem to meet face-to-face with Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Begin immediately invited Sadat to Jerusalem for talks, which eventually led to the Camp David Accords and the Israeli-Egyptian Treaty. Cronkite loved the space program, spending 27 of the 30 of the Apollo XI space mission on air. He once shouted “Go Baby, Go!” in his boyish excitement. Cronkite retired in 1981 to make room for the new anchorman: Dan Rather. In retirement, he worked on a few projects and specials for CBS. He passed away in 2009 at age 92 after suffering from a long illness. SEE WALTER CRONKITE’S COVERAGE OF KENNEDY’S ASSASSINATION
AMERICAN PATRIOT 13
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“You have to love a nation that celebrates
its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.”
—ERMA BOMBECK AUTHOR, COLUMNIST, HUMORIST SYNDICATED IN 900 NEWSPAPERS THROUGH THE 1990S
14 AMERICAN PATRIOT
THIS WEEK IN
AMERICAN HISTORY
1957. Althea Gibson won the women’s singles title at Wimbledon. She was the first African-American to win a tennis championship at the historic court. Gibson was born in South Carolina and grew up in Harlem. AMERICAN PATRIOT 15
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