RNC '08: American is not just about the freedom we have; it is about those who gave it to us.

Day Three of the Republican National Convention was Conservative nirvana. Palin was brilliant, and Romney and Giuliani did an outstanding job illustrating the philosophical differences between McCain and Obama.

I enjoyed all the speeches, but I was particularly moved by one part of Governor Huckabee’s speech:

(excepts form Huckabee’s RNC speech)

“Let me tell you about someone I know who understands this type of sacrifice.

On the first day of school in 2005, Martha Cothren, a teacher at the Joe T. Robinson High School in Little Rock, was determined that her students would not take their education or their privileges as American for granted. And with the principal of her school’s permission, she removed all the desks from her classroom on that first day of school, 2005.

Now, the students walked into an empty classroom and they said, “Ms. Cothren, where’s our desk?” She said, “You get a desk in my classroom when you tell me how you earn it.”

Well, some of them said, “Making good grades.” She said, “Well, you ought to make good grades in my class, but that won’t earn you a desk.” Another student said, “I guess we get a desk when we behave.” Martha said, “You will behave in my classroom.”

But that won’t get you a desk either. No one in first period guessed right. Same for second period. By lunch, the buzz was all over the campus. Ms. Cothren had flipped out, wouldn’t let her students had a desk.

Kids started using their cell phones. They called their parents. And by early afternoon, all four of the local network TV affiliates had camera crews out at the school to report on this teacher who wouldn’t let her students have a desk unless they could tell her how to earn it.

By the final period, no one had guessed correctly, so the students filed in. Martha said, “Well, I didn’t think you would figure it out, so I’m going to tell you.”
And with that, she went to the door of her classroom and motioned, and in walked over 20 veterans, some of them still wearing the uniforms from days gone by, every one of them carrying a school desk. And as they carefully and quietly arranged those desks in neat rows, Martha said, “You don’t have to earn your desk, because these guys, they already did.”

These — these brave veterans had gone halfway around the world, giving up their education, interrupting their careers and families so that we could have the freedom that we have. Martha told them, “No one charged you for your desk, but it wasn’t really free. These guys bought it for you. And I hope you never, ever forget it.”

And I wish, ladies and gentlemen…I wish we would all remember that being American is not just about the freedom we have; it is about those who gave it to us.

And let me remind you of something. John McCain is one of those people who helped buy the freedom and the school desk that we had. John McCain helped me have a school desk.”