AMERICAN PATRIOT
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REAGAN ‘I FORGOT TO DUCK’ THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL THE FIRST LADY OF NASCAR
AMERICAN PATRIOT PLYMOUTH ROCK THE CORNERSTONE
4 8 THE FIRST LADY OF NASCAR
6 THE VIETNAM VETERAN’S MEM0RIAL
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AMERICA’S NATIONAL PARKS
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
THIS WEEK IN AMERICAN HISTORY
PLYMOUTH ROCK THE CORNERSTONE 4 AMERICAN PATRIOT
Visiting a rock has never been so educational! Plymouth Rock is the traditional site of the pilgrims disembarking from the Mayflower in 1620. Located in Plymouth Memorial State Park, MA, the rock has a constant stream of visitors. Some are surprised by the smallness of the rock, but there is good reason for its diminutive size. When the settlers tried to preserve it by moving it a safe distance from the shore, the rock split into two as a team of oxen attempted to lift it. Later, the rock was moved to the Pilgrim Hall Museum; this also ended up being a rough trip as it fell from its wagon and acquired a significant crack. Finally, over the years, Plymouth Rock has been depleted by souvenir seekers hoping to take home a tangible piece of their history. Despite its current size, the rock has not lost its significance. It is a symbol of America’s first step away from Britain and toward what became our country. Americans look upon the rock’s glory and message with awe. Currently this icon resides at the waterfront adjacent to the Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower, which carried the Pilgrims all the way from Britain to Massachusetts. While visiting Plymouth Rock, tourists can also see artifacts, such
THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS by Henry A. Bacon
as William Bradford’s Bible, carried on the Mayflower in the Pilgrim Hall Museum, or the restoration of Harlow House built in 1677. Several boating tours depart from the Plymouth docks, so visitors can get a true sense of the pilgrimage and see the land from the Pilgrim’s vantage point. Tours of the area give visitors a good sense of the settlement and what it was really like to live in America in 1620. Plymouth Rock was the cornerstone of the United States as it stands today; the gateway into the world America has become. OFFICIAL PARK WEBSITE A VIDEO TOUR OF THE MAYFLOWER II
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
The most dangerous animals in the forest don’t live there.
ONLY YOU CAN PR E VE N T W I L D FIRE S. w w w. s m o k e y b e a r. c o m
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.
8 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 9
AMERICA’S NATIONAL PARKS
YOSEMITE
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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
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THE MOST TRUSTED MAN IN AMERICA
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
“Honey, I forgot to duck" — PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN JOKING WITH HIS WIFE NANCY, AFTER HE WAS SHOT OUTSIDE A WASHINGTON D.C. HOTEL BY JOHN HINCKLEY JR. THIS WEEK IN 1981. WHILE WALKING TO HIS LIMOUSINE AFTER A SPEECH, REAGAN WAS HIT IN CHEST. IN ADDITION, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY JAMES BRADY WAS SHOT IN THE HEAD AND CRITICALLY WOUNDED, SECRET SERVICE AGENT TIMOTHY MCCARTHY WAS SHOT IN THE SIDE, AND D.C. POLICEMAN THOMAS DELAHANEY WAS SHOT IN THE NECK. HINCKLEY WAS OVERPOWERED AND PINNED AGAINST A WALL. THE PRESIDENT’S LUNG COLLAPSED, HE WAS OPERATED ON FOR TWO HOURS, AND FAMOUSLY, MADE THE “FORGOT TO DUCK” JOKE. THOUGH PUBLICLY, REAGAN WAS SAID TO HAVE RECOVERED QUICKLY, THE EFFECTS ACTUALLY LINGERED ON FOR YEARS. AS A SIDELIGHT, IN 1993 CONGRESS PASSED THE "BRADY BILL" IN HONOR OF JAMES BRADY, WHICH ESTABLISHED A FIVE-DAY WAITING PERIOD AND BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR PROSPECTIVE GUN BUYERS. PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON SIGNED THE BILL INTO LAW. HINCKLEY WAS FOUND NOT GUILTY BY REASON OF INSANITY.
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THIS WEEK IN
AMERICAN HISTORY
1968. On April 4, Martin Luther King, the quintessential civil rights leader, was killed while standing on the balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis TN. In the city to support a sanitation workers’ strike, the bullet killed him more or less instantly. When word of the assassination spread, riots broke out in many cities. He was laid to rest in Atlanta, his hometown; he was all of 39. The day before his death, King gave his last sermon: “We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop ... And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.” Two months later James Earl Ray, a small time criminal with racist beliefs, was arrested trying to flee the country. AMERICAN PATRIOT 15
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