Patty and I had the pleasure of attending a Flag Day rally at the corner of High and Market Streets in West Chester, Pennsylvania, yesterday. While the trees block your view of part of the 150 to 200-person crowd, you get a good sense of things from this picture posted on the American Sheepdogs website.
Plenty of veterans of the War on Terror, the Gulf War, and Vietnam were on hand. In addition, it was great honor to stand with a Gold Star father, one veteran of World War II (European theatre), and several sets of parents of those now deployed. And we were able to finally meet and chat with American Sheepdogs founder Rich Davis.
Afterwards, we enjoyed the hospitality and good company of Honest Conservative and family. Thank you, HC. We met there Barbara from Virginia who rallies every Friday night outside of Walter Reed in support of our troops. Thank you, Barbara, for being there for them. It was a fine evening after a wonderful day.
Read the Wall Street Journal article.
From The Bulletin (Philadephia):
West Chester – To commemorate Flag Day [today] the Chester County Victory Movement will sponsor a U.S. Flag Day rally outside the West Chester Court House. The rally is in support of the flag and the United States Army, which celebrates its 233rd birthday [today].
“This is a day when all Americans should fly the American flag in honor of all the great things in our country, for all the freedoms we have,” said Rich Davis, Chester County Victory Movement founder. “We want to do our part to honor Old Glory.”
The Chester County Victory Movement was formed in reaction to the Chester County Peace Movement, which would congregate every Saturday to protest the Iraq War.
Retired Navy veteran, Rich Davis, said he grew tired of the Peace Movements weekly displays from what he called “far left political activists.”
“I just decided they don’t speak for me. They don’t represent me,” Mr. Davis said.
So on September 8, 2007, Mr. Davis challenged these anti-war protesters by standing alone “to show open and public support for our troops and their mission.”
His single man rally has grown into a full-fledged movement with a base of about 30 supporters.
“We call ourselves sheep dogs,” Victory Movement member Bud McCullough said. “A sheep dog will protect the sheep from being attacked by the wolves, and we consider the peace people to be wolves and they’re trying to attack the American population, the American citizens.”
“We’re really patriotic Americans and they believe in the American way of life, the American system and they want to preserve it,” Mr. McCullough said.
Mr. McCullough hopes to see a “sea of American flags” supporting the troops tomorrow on Flag Day.
The Flag Day rally, which begins at 10:45 a.m., will conclude at noon with the singing of the national anthem and “The Army Goes Rolling Along,” the official song of the U.S. Army, in celebration of the Army’s 233rd birthday.
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