Fred Harteis - “Hello Freedom Man”

Reading this just makes you proud to be an American!

Fred Harteis, “The message and meaning of the American serviceman was a message of freedom and hope. President Regan captured the spirit of this in his farewell address,”

Fred Harteis and Linda Harteis Reagan Wisdom

I've been thinking a bit at that window. I've been reflecting on what the past eight years have meant and mean. And the image that comes to mind like a refrain is a nautical one - a small story about a big ship, and a refugee and a sailor. It was back in the early eighties, at the height of the boat people. And the sailor was hard at work on the carrier Midway, which was patrolling the South China Sea. The sailor, like most American servicemen, was young, smart, and fiercely observant. The crew spied on the horizon a leaky little boat. And crammed inside were refugees from Indochina hoping to get to America. The Midway sent a small launch to bring them to the ship and safety. As the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one spied the sailor on deck and stood up and called out to him. He yelled, "Hello, American sailor. Hello, freedom man."

A small moment with a big meaning, a moment the sailor, who wrote it in a letter, couldn't get out of his mind. And when I saw it, neither could I. Because that's what it was to be an American in the 1980s. We stood, again, for freedom.

A Fred Harteis great American moment favorite is Ronald Reagan, January 11, 1989, Farewell Speech

© 2007 Fred Harteis - Esource News. Permission given to Don Wilson Quixtar IBO site.