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MARCH 30, 2011

REAGAN‘I FORGOT TO DUCK’

THE VIETNAMVETERANSMEMORIALTHE FIRSTLADY OFNASCAR

AMERICANPATRIOT

PLYMOUTH ROCKTHE CORNERSTONE

46

THE VIETNAMVETERAN’SMEM0RIAL

8THE FIRST LADYOF NASCAR

THIS WEEKIN AMERICANHISTORY

QUOTE OFTHE WEEK

14 15

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4 AMERICAN PATRIOT

PLYMOUTHROCKTHE CORNERSTONE

AMERICAN PATRIOT 5

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 water-

front adjacent to theMayflower 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

as William Bradford’s Bible, carried on

theMayflower in the PilgrimHall 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.

Plymouth Rock is the traditional site of the pilgrims disembarkingfrom the Mayflower in 1620. Located in Plymouth Memorial StatePark, MA, the rock has a constant stream of visitors.

OFFICIAL PARK WEBSITE

Visiting a rock has never been so educational!

A VIDEO TOUR OF THE MAYFLOWER II

THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMSby Henry A. Bacon

6 AMERICAN PATRIOT

THEVIETNAMVETERANSMEMORIAL

AMERICAN PATRIOT 7

President Jimmy Carter signed the legislationthat allocated the space for the memorial inthe Constitution Gardens near the LincolnMemorial on July 1, 1980, and groundbreak-ing began shortly thereafter. The memorialwas paid for completely by 275,000 privatecontributions from individual Americans.

The main criteria for the memorial was thatit be a place that was reflective and contem-plative in character, able to harmonize withthe surroundings, contain the names of thosewho died or missing, and make absolutely nopolitical statement about the war. The VietnamVeterans Memorial Fund chose Maya Lin’sdesign out of about 14,000 entries. Lin wasa Yale undergraduate student who receiveda B on the project; however the judges unan-imously chose her piece.

The wall stands 10 feet tall and 250 feet long.It has 58,267 names of dead and missingsoldiers arranged chronologically accordingto the date of casualty or the date they werereported missing. Each name on the wall isdenoted with a symbol of their status: diamondsmean that their death was confirmed whereasthe cross indicates that they are missing orhave prisoner status.

Some veterans found the wall to be too abstract,so a representational statue of three service-men was added to the memorial in 1984. Thethree servicemen statue is modeled from com-posites of several diverse soldiers back fromwar. An Army nurse, Diane Evans, campaignedfor the representation and remembrance of thethousands of women who served in Vietnam.A statue of three uniform women with awounded soldier was later added to the site.

The “Wall” as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is often referred tois not a war memorial so much as a tribute to those who served,both living and dead. It is considered one of the most successfulmonuments of its kind in the world.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL

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 most dangerous animals in the forestdon’t live there.The most dangerous animals in the forestdon’t live there.

8 AMERICAN PATRIOT

THE FIRST LADY OF NASCARThe “Good ol’ Gal” remembers her racing days fondly. Louise Smithonce said of her career: “I enjoyed every minute of it.” When noone thought it was possible for a woman to race in NASCAR, thesouthern belle from Greenville SC took on anything that hadwheels. By the time she retired, she had 38 victories to her name.

AMERICAN PATRIOT 9

It all started in the 1940’s, when the

racing promoter Bill France was looking

for women to spice up attendance at

an early event in NASCAR’s history. He

got word that Louise Smith, a Greenville

local, was well-known for speeding around

the city and often outrunning the cops.

France recruited her for the race and she

finished third. So inexperienced was she,

Smith did not know what the checkered

flag meant, she kept going after winning

until someone threw out a red flag onto

the course.

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 her-

self. 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

making friends and admirers in anything

from midgets to modifieds to sportsmans.

She made a brief return in 1971 to spon-

sor cars for numerous drivers on the way

up. In 1999, Smith was inducted into the

International Motorsports Hall of Fame

in Talledaga AL. Louise Smith died in

April 2006 of cancer at the age of 89.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL OF THEHALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

CLICK HERE TO SEE A VIDEO OFA CHILDREN’S BOOK ABOUTLOUISE SMITH

10 AMERICAN PATRIOT

AMERICA’SNATIONAL PARKS

YOSEMITE

AMERICAN PATRIOT 11

John Muir was instrumental in helping to estab-lish Yosemite as a national park. Muir is soclosely associated with Yosemite park — afterall, he helped draw up its proposed boundariesin 1889, wrote the magazine articles that galva-nized public opinion and led to its creation in1890, and co-founded the Sierra Club in 1892to protect it. Later, he befriended PresidentTeddy Roosevelt, hosted him for a famouscamping trip deep into Yosemite, and convincedRoosevelt to add the part to the newly devel-oping national parks system.

Today, Yosemite acts as a researchers dreamand an adventurers ideal. The park supports over400 species of wildlife including vertebrates,mammals, reptiles, and birds. The biodiversityis attributed to the varying habitats within thepark. With 1,169 square miles or about the sizeof Rhode Island, the rich habitats range fromconifer forests to expanses of alpine rock tothick foothill chaparral. Yosemite also housesthree groves of over 500 individual giant sequoiatrees, some estimated to be 1,800 years old.There are also several large waterfalls in Yosemite,but the biggest and most popular is YosemiteFalls, the tallest waterfall in North Americastanding at 2,425 feet. It is the seventh tallestwaterfall in the world.

There are 800 miles of trail within the park forhikers and backpackers to frolic along. The tallestpeak in the park is Mt. Lyell with an elevationof 13,114 feet. For those not willing to campon the ground, there are eight lodges dispersedthrough the park. Last year almost 3.9 milliontourists visited the park.

Before the Europeans arrived, the Ahwahneechee tribe recognized Yosemitefor its beauty and resources. In themid-1800’s Europeans started to travelto the valley to gaze at its greatness. In 1851, theMariposa Battalion of theU.S. Army removed the native American tribe from the valley, and the landbegan to be mined for minerals. The destruction of this glorious placesparked the conservation movement in the 1890’s.

CLICK HERE FOR A VIDEODEPICTING YOSEMITE FALLS

THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND JOHN MUIRON GLACIER POINT IN YOSEMITE

THE MOST TRUSTEDMAN IN AMERICA

AMERICAN PATRIOT 13

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 anchor-

man. 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 in-

vited 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 retire-

ment, 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’SCOVERAGE OF KENNEDY’SASSASSINATION

During his long career, Walter Cronkite earned the sobriquet as the “mosttrusted man in America.” He worked for CBS for 31 years and reported oneverymajor news event from1950 until 1981. His specials on the VietnamWar,Apollo XI, and JFK earned him near legendary status amongst his audience.And as the first journalist on air to report onPresidentKennedy’s assassination,he broke new ground by discarding the usual journalist objectivity to shedtears over Kennedy’s death.

14 AMERICAN PATRIOT

QUOTE OFTHE 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.

AMERICAN PATRIOT 15

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.

THIS WEEK INAMERICAN HISTORY

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