Only 29.8% of Americans alive today are of age to remember where they were, what they were doing or their emotional reaction to the November 1963 news that President Kennedy had been assassinated. But those of us who do remember, do so vividly.

Few remember what they were doing when assassination attempts were made on President Reagan or President Ford. Sadly, the same will probably be true for the recent assassination attempt on former President Trump. Unless there is carnage of unimaginable proportion, our memories are short, but hyperbole surrounding events such as these has no bounds, especially now with the ubiquity of social media.

Thank God that the young would-be Trump assassin was not trained by the Marine Corps on how to accurately fire a weapon like Lee Harvey Oswald was or we probably would have another day on which we all would remember what we were doing and where we were.

It is almost poetic justice that as the wounded and bloodied former president was hustled off the stage, a picture of his defiantly raised fist was framed with the American flag in the background. Will that picture be remembered like the Zapruder film capturing for all eternity the moment Kennedy was mortally wounded? I doubt it, but it does offer a clarion call for the flag’s meaning for us all.

Originally this blog about our American flag was to appear last July Fourth, but prophetically current events and internet gremlins ruined that as Meatingplace.com was unavailable and thus my blog was lost to cyber space. However, our nation’s birthday coupled with the sight of a wounded, but defiant Trump further triggered my emotions about our flag’s meaning.

Normally, in July Fourth's dawn’s early light, I display our American flag and reflect back on how I learned what it meant. One summer morning of my college junior year standing on the parade ground at Ft. Lewis, Was., Sgt. Jack Carden told all of us wannabe US Army Second Lieutenants what the flag meant to him. He had served his country, yours and mine, in three wars earning three Purple Hearts in so doing. To him our flag meant a sacred obligation to preserve, protect and defend the freedoms it represented.

All of us have the choice to embrace those freedoms, too. Recently, I have become concerned that our freedoms may be imperiled. In four months, we cast our votes for president. Currently, our choice is between two men with a combined age of 159 years. Whether 78 or 81 years old, neither candidate, in my opinion, is fit to embrace the demands of the next four years as president. Both are just too old.

Two of our greatest and youngest presidents, Democrat John Kennedy and Republican Teddy Roosevelt, were 35 and 38 years younger, respectively, than our current choices when they were elected.

JFK may have said it best in his inaugural speech, “Let the word go forth from this time and place, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.” (bold italics mine)

While this blog may not convey my usual discourse on meat and poultry marketing tactics, I felt compelled to strongly advocate that each of us must embrace that sacred freedom obligation our flag represents.

We must find that better person who can lead us in an artificial-intelligence challenged future. We cannot be swayed by the hyperbole of the current presidential candidates, but we must seek those with the wisdom to lead us not just the cunning to attract us. We cannot be unduly influenced by either candidates’ physical or mental acuity or lack thereof. We need to be led, as JFK described, by a new generation of Americans.

Our country has been tested before. Witness our Civil War, the great depression and the evil of the KKK to name but a few. But, we have survived those crucibles and have thrived becoming the envy of the world. We can do so once again!

Shots Ring Out and Blood Flows — Again

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