A Final Thought


Thank you all for taking the time to 'look in' on the family. I hope your summer has started off well. To give my regular writers some extra time off, there will be no new edition in August. We will come  back live again in September, and write till the end of the year. 
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My final thought I leave you is actually a true story drawn from a speech presented by Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on March 2, 2007. 

In September of 2005, on the first day of school at Joe T. Robinson High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, history teacher Martha Cothren did something not to be forgotten. On this particular first day of school, with the permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she moved all of the desks out of her classroom.

When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there were no desks. Looking around in confusion, they asked, "Ms. Cothren, where are our desks ?"

She replied, "You can't have a desk until you tell me what you have done to earn the right to sit at a desk."

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They thought for a moment, "Well, maybe it's our grades."

"No," she said.

"Maybe it's our behavior."

She told me, "No, it's not your behavior."

And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third period ... still no desks in the classroom.

By early afternoon television news crews had started gathering in Ms. Cothren's classroom to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room. The final period of the day came and as the puzzled students seated themselves on the floor of the classroom, Martha Cothren said, "Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just what he or she has done to earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this classroom. Nor I am going to tell you."

At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it. Twenty-seven (27) U.S. Veterans, all in uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall.

By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned.

Martha said, "You didn't earn the right to sit at these desks These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks her for you. Now, it's up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education. Don't ever forget it."

If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you read it in America in English, thank a US Soldier, Sailor, Marine, Airman US Merchant Marine, or US Coast Guardsman!

Have a great 4th... CLASS DISMISSED.

NOTE: Martha Cothren was named "Teacher of the Year"  by the American Veterans of Foreign Wars in 2006. Martha and her students have sent numerous packages and letters to soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

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