Happy Patriot's Day

Today at Collin's school we celebrated Patriot's Day with a flag raising ceremony.
The early years (K & 1st) students sang a song about the importance of going out and voting (I made sure to register with my new address so I'm good to go)
Afterwards the students were invited to leave flowers at the base of the flag pole. (my camera ran out of batteries right then, rrr)

We got to school early so I told Collin about why we celebrate Patriot's Day today. I told him about the plane crashes...

A girl in our ward was getting married but they didn't have enough money to send both of her parents out here for the wedding so it was decided that just her mom would come. As a surprise, her friends organized fund raisers and earned enough money to fly her dad out too. Ironically he was able to get a direct flight while his wife had a lay-over... (I think you know where this is going) He was on the 4th plane that went down on 9/11. I explained to Collin how the passengers found out what was happening and overpowered the hijackers so the plane crashed without killing thousands more.

In the program this morning the principal talked about the military people but I wanted Collin to know that you don't have to be in the armed forces to be patriotic. Those people in the last plane were patriotic by protecting others, even giving up their lives. When we go out and talk about prop 8 to people, encouraging them to support it, we are being patriotic. The women who had the booth at school to encourage parents to register to vote, even though we have different political views, were being patriotic. The little kids explaining the Pledge of Allegiance, and singing about voting, were being patriotic.
You don't have to be in the military to love our country. Do something today to make it a better place to live in, for our children and for ourselves.