FOR YOU, MY HERO

By Lisa Malooly

For You, My Hero offers a light and breezy examination of history, rediscovering events that shaped a nation and its people.
Written as a personal journey connecting elements of philosophy, theology, psychology, sociology, and history; the passages consider America’s traditions and contemporary culture, all while exploring the human condition.
With each line of The Pledge of Allegiance as a guide, take a walk-through time, reclaim the past, honor and possibly be…a hero in the future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 3, 2024
• ISBN: 9798369422618

Lisa Malooly

Lisa Malooly is a third-generation Texan. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Texas Christian University, a Master of Arts degree from National University, and has studied abroad in Italy, France, England, Australia, Fiji, and New Zealand. While an undergraduate English and ESL Instructor, Lisa was introduced to students from all over the world. Discussions encompassing various countries and cultures resulted in an introspective historical personal journey in For You, My Hero. At Lisa’s request, a percentage of her royalties from this book will go to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.

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Copyright © 2024 by Lisa Malooly.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 05/31/2024

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

856434

This book is dedicated to the memory of my parents.

Thank you for giving me wings to not only fly, but the love and support to soar.

Now, you both have your wings and are watching over all of us.

Always remembering my grandparents with admiration.

Small-town values passed down from generation to generation, with love.

Immigrants who not only lived the American Dream …

They shared it with us.

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter 1:   I Pledge Allegiance

Chapter 2:   To the Flag

Chapter 3:   Of the United States of America

Chapter 4:   And to the Republic

Chapter 5:   For Which It stands

Chapter 6:   One Nation

Chapter 7:   Under God

Chapter 8:   Indivisible

Chapter 9:   With Liberty

Chapter 10: And Justice for All

Talking Points for a Book Club

Epilogue

PREFACE

For You, My Hero offers a light and breezy examination of history, rediscovering events that shaped a nation and its people.

Written as a personal journey connecting elements of philosophy, theology, psychology, sociology, and history; the passages consider America’s traditions and contemporary culture, all while exploring the human condition.

With each line of The Pledge of Allegiance as a guide, take a walk-through time, reclaim the past, honor and possibly be…a hero in the future.

1

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE

When I was born, I was so surprised

I didn’t talk for a year and a half.

—Gracie Allen (1906–1954)

Do You Have a Dawnzerly Light?

W HEN I WAS A CHILD, I thought the phrase in The Star-Spangled Banner said, "Oh, say can you see, by the dawnzerly light . "

Elementary-school-kid-me wondered, what is a dawnzerly light? What kind of lightbulb does it use? Where do you buy it? Why do you need it?

Another part of the song was confusing to me. O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming. Ramparts? What in the world are ramparts? Do I have to watch them to be a good American, or do I have to watch them because they were so gallantly streaming?

Where did my education go wrong that I never understood the lyrics to the national anthem? Sure, we memorized things like the preamble to the Constitution: We the people of the United States, in order to perform a more perfect Union, establish … establish … establish …

Ugh … I can’t remember the rest.

The preamble was primarily authored by Gouverneur Morris. Curiously, his mother gave him a name like the word ‘governor.’ Maybe she knew he was going places? He did. Morris was one of the lesser-known Founding Fathers of the United States, a Pennsylvania delegate during the 1787 Constitutional Convention, and one of the authors of the Constitution. He was often called, The Penman of the Constitution.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The Founding Fathers were not just a bunch of men with a catchy nickname; they were a group American revolutionary leaders who united the Thirteen Colonies, experienced the war against Great Britain, and established the United States of America by crafting a new framework of government.

This very cool group of men also signed the United States Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution, among other early documents. Though many lesser-known men are recognized as Founding Fathers like Morris, John Hancock and Roger Sherman, historian Richard Morris named seven men as the primary Founding Fathers : John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.

Do You Have That Look?

The Pledge of Allegiance was said every morning in elementary school. The words meant nothing to me, something we had to say. I didn’t understand why adults around me would recite it with such gusto.

At public events, adults proudly put their hand over their heart and men were quick to take off their hats. Everyone just had that look. I couldn’t explain that look, just a faraway look that my elders had in their eyes while reciting the Pledge of Allegiance or singing the national anthem.

I dismissed that look and found it insignificant, for I was more interested in playing jacks, hopscotch, and creating a cookie that might not have really been a cookie in my Easy Bake Oven!

That look was not something I was ashamed of, just something associated with my elders. I put that look right up there with things adults say or do as they grow older. Old people phrases, such as: Boy, we sure need that rain, Look how fresh those turnips are! or Well, back in my day …" You know, old-people stuff. That look was something only adults seemed to do.

Decades passed, and I had forgotten all about that look. Then one night, while singing the national anthem at a public sporting event after September 11, I suddenly stopped during the line "and the rocket’s red glare." I was overcome with emotion, as tears filled my eyes. There I stood as a grown woman, realizing I finally had that look. That same look I saw in the face of my elders so many years ago.

I felt ashamed. I spent my entire life taking freedom for granted. Freedom is a privilege, not a right. As a child, I assumed it was a right. All talk about war seemed like something of a myth, a legend of long ago, like the stories my aunt had shared about the love letters my uncle wrote to her during World War II.

Here, as a grown woman with that look, I am faced with much more than the thought of writing a love letter to a soldier. I am faced with the harsh realization that the liberty I enjoyed as a right is truly a privilege and one that must constantly be defended.

That look is appreciation for being a part of a nation. Maybe tearing up during the national anthem or pausing to mourn a soldier we never knew but who was probably a pen pal to an ancestor of ours.

We need that look when we encounter someone in the military. Someone who thinks my country and me are important enough to die for. That look is a visible part of showing pride and patriotism. Anyone, in any country, should have that look.

Hating your country is like hating your

parents and still living in their home.

Move out and be happy somewhere else.

Is Nixon One of Santa’s Reindeer?

I am voting for Ronald Reagan. My social studies teacher was amused at my declaration because I was just a kid. But since my childhood crush Alex Keaton on the television show Family Ties was a Republican, well, I was too!

My teacher, though amused, turned serious. She explained choosing a candidate is based on his or her platform, not whether they are cute or not—like Alex Keaton. She further explained the process of electing officials and the importance of going into a booth and casting a personal ballot.

My teacher stressed that voting is so important, for this mere act not only impacts every citizen but drives the entire country’s future in a particular direction.

I nodded over her wise words and thought carefully.

Today, as an adult, I am still nodding over her wise words and thinking carefully. No wonder honest and free elections with voter integrity are so important.

"Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to

see them being made" (Otto von Bismarck,

1815–98, chancellor of Germany).

This most significant voting tradition creates people we label as politicians.

What do politicians create? Besides problems, controversy, scandals, laws, and debt, politicians have also made some entertaining and amusing statements:

• Honestly, if I were two-faced, would I be showing you this one? (Abraham Lincoln).

• "The Feeling came over me that the expression of ‘The United States of America’ would now and henceforth mean something different than it had ever before. From here on, it would be the nation I would be serving, not myself" (Dwight Eisenhower, his memory standing on the plain at West Point).

• "He has no more backbone than a chocolate éclair" (Theodore Roosevelt on William McKinley).

• The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining (John F. Kennedy).

• Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder (George Washington).

• I have often wondered what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress (Ronald Reagan).

• "If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month" (Theodore Roosevelt).

• John Calhoun, if you secede from my nation, I will secede your head from the rest of your body (Andrew Jackson).

• I always talk better lying down (James Madison, on his deathbed).

• I have often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can’t get my wife to go swimming (Jimmy Carter).

Two Georges

George W. #1

George Washington. Mr. One Dollar Bill himself. When he was a child, probably no one imagined he was destined for politics. He knocked down the infamous cherry tree and told his father, I cannot tell a lie. He cannot tell a lie. Probably, the only politician in America to utter those words!

Wooden teeth and all, he ended up doing very well for himself—the first president of the United States, general of the American army during the War of Independence, the nation’s capital is named after him, his face eternally memorialized on Mount Rushmore, and he’s got one heckuva monument! George Washington was probably the first to personify the American Dream.

But notice his inaugural speech is quite humble and almost a touch apprehensive. It is as though ole’ George knew the difficult road about to be paved for generations to come. The following are excerpts from George Washington’s first inaugural address, in the City of New York, Thursday, April 30, 1789:

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives: AMONG the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order … On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I