"Hats off! Along the street there comes the blare of bugles a ruffle of drums, A flash of color beneath the sky, hat's off the flag is passing by!" This is the first stanza of a poem written Henry Holcomb Bennett, and a poem that many American school children have read for years. However, this poem is more than just a piece of American rhetoric; it contains several reminders that show who America is and how she came to be the greatest country on earth.

America was founded by people who recognized that freedom came at a great price. For some it meant leaving behind home and family and working hard to build a new life in a tough country, for some it was heroic acts such as midnight rides and tea parties, for others the ultimate sacrifice for freedom-the loss of life on a battlefield. As the poem continues, "Blue and crimson and white it shines, over the steel-tipped, ordered lines. Hats off! The colors before us fly; but more than the flag is passing by."

Freedom's price is still being paid today, as troops are sent to the Middle East to defend our country from attacks like that of September 11th or attempts such as that in New York. Will the American public be aware of how often our troops have protected us from great harm? It's not likely, but covert missions and defense moves are necessary so that we are free to come and go as we have for over 200 years.

Consider the closing stanza of this poem: "Days of plenty and years of peace; march of a strong land's swift increase; equal justice, right and law, stately honor and reverend awe; sign of a nation, great and strong to ward her people from foreign wrong: pride and glory and honor,-all live in the colors to stand or fall." Americans have made it through the Depression, endured the Cold War, excelled during the age of inventions and works today toward improvements in many aspects of life. But none of these advancements came without cost and sacrifice. We have used up many natural resources, and spend hours at work, as we continue to look for a better way to do things so that others will have blessings not available before.

There are many reasons people from all over the world want to come to America to live and we continue to invite them to come, via the proper methods. After all, the Lady Liberty still says, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free..." In addition, our Declaration of Independence states, we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But as our founding fathers knew, those freedoms were costly. They were in 1776 and they still are today. The next time you see an American flag, remember what she stands for and count your blessing that you live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.