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MAF Blogger Danny
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We knew that we wanted to hurry and get to Des Moines, IA because the rally was at the State Capitol and there were several groups arranged to meet us there and help us out in our rally.

These guys are bag pipers and they volunteered to offer their services for our rally.

We also had the Des Moines North High School JROTC Color Guard.

We were told that one of the local TV stations was going to cover our Des Moines rally in entirety and I noticed a few cameras but none of them stayed for an extended period of time. So maybe they flaked on us, or maybe they just got what they thought they needed and left.

So we opened up with the JROTC Color Guard marching and presenting the colors for us, and then the bag pipers marched from one end of the street to the other playing some song that sounded somewhat familiar but I of course have no idea what it is. Then Diana Nagy sang The Star Spangled Banner and Where Freedom Flies while the JROTC displayed the colors proudly!

A few times now Deborah Johns has talked about how her son Will wanted to join the Marine Corps even before he turned 18. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that before, because sometimes we have to skip some details when our rallies are running late. But whenever she has time to tell the whole story I am always very impressed with that young man’s desire to serve our country. According to Deborah, Will asked his mom if she wanted to go for a drive with him, and what mother wouldn’t?  I can’t remember the last time I spent any real quality time talking with my mom about life and what’s going on in mine. I bet Will, like most of us, was the same way so of course Deborah would have leapt at the chance to spend some time with Will. When Will drove his mom to the Marine Corps recruiting station though, she was speechless. But that is what Will wanted to do, serve his country and Deborah couldn’t be more proud of her son. I hope I can meet him some day and tell him myself how thankful I am.

I was able to get a cool little video today of Buzz just talking a little about the way our soldiers are being politicized and manipulated without even being asked if they mind being spoken for by either republicans or democrats.

It reminds me of these anti-war protesters and their EXTREMELY distasteful die-in protests. Apparently they are planning one of these for this coming Saturday; and their plan is to acquire 3700 or so coffins, one for each of our braze men and women who have died in Iraq, placing the names of the dead on those coffins and having an activist play that dead soldier in their die-in. It’s just despicable because they can’t ask the soldiers who have fallen if they support the war or not, if they support what the protestors or doing, and if they mind being used as a political prop. Worse still, they don’t bother to ask the families of these fallen soldiers if their sons or daughters would have consented to such a thing or how the family feels about the use of their son or daughter’s name.

Debbie Lee hopes to find the actor who will be her son Marc at the DC protest and request that Marc’s name not be used as a political tool. Let’s see if they respect the wishes of Marc’s mother…

After some more words from Buzz we wanted to wrap up so Diana sang America the Beautiful and the bag pipers closed for us with Amazing Grace! I talked to a lot of really neat people and I asked several of them how they felt living in Iowa where it was basically politics central during the primary season. Many related to me that Iowa’s residents often will get sick of politics and sometimes just turn it off. But everyone seemed to agree that the idea of the caucus system was awesome and was really a good example of more pure democracy. Many did however admit that in 2004 the caucus systems got so much media attention that the process suffered quite a bit. Interesting things you learn on the road.