2018 Donald Trump - Our Civic Duty as Americans to Honor our Veterans

President Trump had a rare moment of unity during his 2018 State of the Union History when he introduced 12 yr. old Preston Sharp and his efforts to place 40,000 American flags on veterans' gravestones.  President Trump used this as a lesson for all to never forget the sacrifices of the brave men and women have made so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have here in the greatest country in the world.  I share this, not only as a piece of history from the State of the Union Addresses, but as a reminder of how we sometimes need to have the heart and mind of a 12-year-old boy and look up to all our veterans.

The custom of inviting special guests to the State of the Union is one that only started recently. In fact, for most of the 19th century the State of the Union Addresses were delivered as a letter to be read by a clerk to Congress.   George Washington and John Adams Quincy did deliver their addresses as a speech, but it wasn't until l913, that Woodrow Wilson established the practice of delivering the address as a speech in front of Congress, and in 1923 Calvin Coolidge was the first president to broadcast his State of the Union Address to the American public via Radio.  Twenty-four year later, Harry Truman delivered his Message in front of a T.V. audience and in 1965, Lyndon Johnson became the first president to deliver his message during prime time.   Then in 1982, President Ronald Reagan once again broke the mold, and did something no other President had ever done before during the State of the Union Address.   President Reagan invited a special guest by the name of Lenny Skutnik to the attend the address.  Reagan did this to showcase Skutnick as a national hero.   Just two weeks earlier, Skutnick jumped into the Potomac river to pull a victim of a plane crash ashore.   Reagan used this as an example of what he called “the spirit of American heroism at its finest”.   And with that a new tradition emerged.  By 2015, President Obama's State of the Union included the names of four of his more than 20 special guests. It is now customary, for the President to introduce these guests to honor a special occasion or give emphasis to a particular policy they have an interest in. 

Thus, it was following tradition that on January 30, 2018 President Trump invited a 12 yr old boy to bring attention to "our amazing veterans as heroes".  President Trump used this occasion as a patriotic moment to promise a "total and unwavering" support from the American people to the both the police and veterans.  Preston Sharp first gained local attention when at the age of 10 yrs, he developed an idea that would pay tribute to so man of our heroic veterans.   On Veterans Day in 2015, Preston Sharp went to visit his grandfather's grave at Redding Memorial Park in Northern California.  Seeing no flags honoring the fallen veterans, Preston got really upset and decided to go back and put flags and flowers on all of the veterans' graves.  He started out small, but with the help of his mother he opened up a GoFundMe page raising enough money in early 2016 to put 2500 flags and 800 flowers on veterans' grave sites.  By 2017, he was gaining the attention of both local and national news.  CBS News called him the "pied piper of patriotism".  At only 11 years old, he had put flags on 23,000 graves.  But, this was nothing compared to the attention he received when president Trump invited to Preston be his special guest during the State of the Union Address and he was sitted right next to First Lady Melania Trump.  At 12 years old, Preston's patriotism and commitment to our fallen soldiers went down in history as one of the brightest moments during the 2018 State of the Union address.  It was a rare moment of unity in such a divided world, and a lesson for all of us to never forget the sacrifices of the brave men and women have made and still make to this day so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have here in the greatest country in the world.

"Tonight I want to talk about what kind of future we are going to have and what kind of a nation we are going to be. All of us, together, as one team, one people, and one American family can do anything. We all share the same home, the same heart, the same destiny, and the same great American flag. Together, we are rediscovering the American way. In America, we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the center of American life. The motto is, "In God We Trust." And we celebrate our police, our military, and our amazing veterans as heroes who deserve our total and unwavering support. 

Here tonight is Preston Sharp, a 12-year-old boy from Redding, California, who noticed that veterans' graves were not marked with flags on Veterans Day. He decided all by himself to change that and started a movement that has now placed 40,000 flags at the graves of our great heroes. Preston, a job well done. Young patriots, like Preston, teach all of us about our civic duty as Americans. And I met Preston a little while ago, and he is something very special, that I can tell you. Great future. Thank you very much for all you've done, Preston. Thank you very much. 

Preston's reverence for those who have served our Nation reminds us of why we salute our flag, why we put our hands on our hearts for the Pledge of Allegiance, and why we proudly stand for the national anthem."

References

Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2018). Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-before-joint-session-the-congress-the-state-the-union-25 [Accessed 12 Nov. 2018].

Cbsnews.com. (2018). California boy, 11, becomes the pied piper of patriotism. [online] Available at: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-boy-11-becomes-the-pied-piper-of-patriotism/ [Accessed 12 Nov. 2018].

Enjoymagazine.net. (2018). Honoring Veterans with Preston Sharp | Enjoy Magazine. [online] Available at: http://www.enjoymagazine.net/2016/04/22/108512/honoring-veterans-with-preston-sharp [Accessed 12 Nov. 2018].

History.house.gov. (2018). State of the Union Address | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives. [online] Available at: https://history.house.gov/Institution/SOTU/State-of-the-Union/ [Accessed 12 Nov. 2018].

Redding.com. (2018). [online] Available at: https://www.redding.com/story/news/2018/01/31/redding-boy-honored-trump-state-union-speech/1085091001/ [Accessed 12 Nov. 2018].

Time. (2018). http://time.com. [online] Available at: http://time.com/4175037/skutnik-state-of-the-union-history/ [Accessed 12 Nov. 2018].
Watch this as clip of the SOTU here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfvpvBNNFEg