A Marine knows that pride is the bedrock upon which he will lay the foundation of his life, and on that foundation he will build the structure by which the worth of his existence and the measure of his accomplishments will be judged.

One of these days, someone smarter and younger and more articulate than I is going to get through to the American people just how really messed up the federal government has become. And when that happens, the American people are going to rise up like that football crowd in Cleveland and run both teams off the field.

It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives that protester the freedom to abuse and burn that flag.

Once upon a time, the most successful Democratic leader of them all, FDR, looked south and said I see one third of a nation ill-housed, ill clad, ill nourished. Today our national Democratic leaders look south and say, I see one third of a nation and it can go to hell.

It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.

I truly believe that at times like this, silence is not golden. It is yellow.

I can remember that little thrill - that little shiver of excitement - when the Opry audience would encore a person because that person had touched them so.