From the Community: Finding Your Patriotism

Editor's note: The following is a letter to the editor submitted by Aliso Viejo resident Holly Telford. She will be reading the letter on Saturday as a speech in hopes of receiving a woman of achievement award. Telford said,

"I wanted to share [this] with you as you celebrate Independence Day.  I was inspired to write it after watching 'Act of Valor' and being reminded of the legacy my dad left for me. Happy Fourth of July friends.  I hope you enjoy your families."

"I am a mother to a blended family of five children.  Three of my children are teenagers in high school, one is a young adult and one is 7 years old. I work as an elementary school special education teacher, am a writer-author and I volunteer my time teaching musical theatre to kindergarten-5th grade students. A program I developed eight years ago in my community.  The purpose was to provide an avenue for the students at my daughter’s school to learn through artistic performance and expression.  It is a program that encourages being a good citizen, that fosters student mentor relationships, teaches community service, builds leadership, teaches public speaking and develops each individual’s self-esteem. 

I continuously reinforce to my students to take a chance to develop courage and overcome the fear of being a leader by advocating for their values.  This is why I stand before you today; I am doing what my children tell me 'to practice what I preach.'  It is no easy task for me to get up in front of many people and speak. However, in order to be a better teacher to my students, I must continue to challenge myself by 'practicing what I preach.'  As I speak before you, I will remind myself what I tell my students, that passion is a transference of love and it is meant to be shared with others, hopefully that reminder will conquer my nerves today.

I have little time, however would like to introduce a thought about a subject I feel very passionate about. My platform is Advocacy for the Arts in Education, however I am not going to talk about that now as I have that speech down.  I am going to talk to you about patriotism. American Patriotism.

In lieu of our most recent holiday, the celebration of America's Independence, the day 'We the people' was adopted and then the year of a very important Presidential election. 

Also, being that I am raising teenagers, which is no easy task, I have been reminded continuously how many of our youth has developed a distorted understanding of our American Values. Social media, MTV, rap music, money and object idolization, Snooky, etc. have all brought distraction and confusion to taking the time to uphold and remind ourselves of the values our founding fathers created.  It became very apparent to me how confused many of the citizens that occupy our country are, as they do not display an American Flag at their home in honor of our great country. I discovered this after walking a neighborhood with my Girl Scout troop, of the 220 homes there were seven American Flags hanging.  All were from military families. 

Yet I recall 11 years ago after 9/11, everyone had American Flags on their cars and homes. It is time to bring that enthusiasm and support back home. We must show our respect for the many people putting their life on the line to protect our freedom, and to show our respect for the freedoms and gift our great country offers us all—opportunity, free enterprise, the right to vote and freedom of speech to name a few.

Many of my girl scouts and musical students did not know our countries beloved songs, 'America the Beautiful,' 'America,' 'God Bless America,' and 'The Star Spangled Banner.' Many of the parents could not recite the first three paragraphs of the preamble to the declaration of independence or recall the Bill of Rights and 10 commandments. Yet we are raising our youth to live, vote and work in our country with little understanding of the privilege. 

Did you know that 'in God We Trust' is our nation’s motto, and it is written on the back of our $20 bill and our coins? It is in the star spangled banner—our countries national anthem and partially stated in God Bless America, many US states offer 'in God We Trust' stickers for license plates, is written on Pennsylvania State Capitol and Georgia’s State flag of our countries documents, on the Washington D.C. buildings, in official documents, and historical speeches. Our first nation’s flag with 13 stripes had God, Liberty and Law in the folds of the bars and the pledge of allegiance says 'under God.'

Our country is still very young and learning, we are not perfect, let’s not forget to stop and remember that community must begin at home, this is our home and we must protect it’s greatness and be thankful for it’s many great gifts.

In closing, I want to encourage and challenge you all to leadership and to put some thought into what I have shared with you. To become good Patriots to our country by hanging a flag outside your home for no other reason but to show respect, put it up at dawn and take it down at dusk. Go home and Google the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the 10 commandments. Reacquaint yourself with why we are so lucky to live, vote and have freedom in America. Know them well and teach your families, friends and neighbors.  

Remember to practice what you preach, and the other famous line 'actions speak louder than words.'

Join me, leave a legacy of goodness and help bring American Patriotism into your communities.

God Bless America! Thank you."