The Blank Check

While I was doing some Internet background research on Veterans Day for Thursday?s advancer story on the events planned to honor Washington County veterans, I ran across a story that I thought was worthy of sharing.

Many times when I run across stories like this, I tend to take them with a grain of salt. With no source to site, many times the stories are made up. This one stuck with me so much that I actually looked into it. The story is true.

According to the story I found, in September 2005, a social studies teacher at Robinson High School in Little Rock, Ark. named Martha Cothren ? with permission of the superintendent and the principal of that district ? taught her students the importance of our nation?s veterans. She did this in a way that will have a lasting affect.

The story goes that on the first day of school, the students in her first period class entered her room and found their desks had been removed. The students asked Mrs. Cothren where their desks were.

?You can?t have a desk until you can tell me what you have done to earn the right to sit at a desk,? Mrs. Cothren told the class.

The students began naming things they could have done to earn a desk. They cited good grades and good behavior. She told them that those reasons weren?t good enough.

Second and third periods went by without any desks in the classroom. By this time the local media had caught wind of the story and had sent camera crews to the school to get a story of the crazy teacher who didn?t allow desks in her classroom.

By the end of the day, the desks hadn?t returned. The final class came into Mrs. Cothren?s room. Still, no desks were present in the room.

?Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me what he or she has done to earn the right to sit at the desks normally found in this classroom,? she said. ?Now I am going to tell you.?

She walked to the door of the classroom and opened it. Standing at the door of the classroom was a line of 27 veterans. All were in uniform and each was carrying a school desk. The vets walked into the classroom and began placing the desks in orderly lines. Each soldier added his desk and went to stand by the wall.

Mrs. Cothren explained, possibly for the first time, to the students how the right to sit at a desk in class had been earned.

?You didn?t earn the right to sit at these desks,? she said. ?These heroes did it for you. Now, it is up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students and to be good citizens. They paid the price so you could have the freedom to get an education. Don?t forget that.?

It doesn?t take much to look around and see a right we have in the United States that people in other countries only dream of. In many countries, the ability to speak out on any subject is reason for a prison sentence or even execution. The right to earn a living and keep what you earn isn?t present in many countries. Even the right to sit here and read this newspaper ? which isn?t censored by the government ? is something people in other countries can?t enjoy.

During an interview with American Legion Commander Ron Northup recently, he recalled a saying that ?a veteran is someone who, at some point in his or her life, wrote a blank check payable to the United States of America for any amount up to and including their life.? People like that are the reasons we have the freedoms to make our own way in this country.

Today, Veterans Day, take some time to remember those who gave everything they had to make sure we could enjoy all the freedoms our founding fathers dreamed we could have. Remember, when you are sitting at your desk today, or in front of your television, or in your car, you are doing so because someone gave that blank check to make sure you could.