Part of a speech given by high school student Joe Masciovecchio:

I have a picture in my room that got a pretty funny comment from a friend of mine. One day, while we were hanging out, he grabbed a picture off my desk, looked at it for about ten seconds and went, "Dude, when are you going to put a real photo in this?" I laughed pretty hard, because, despite what my friend thought, that wasn't the picture that came with the frame. In fact, it was taken back in 1939, on the last day that my grandfather, Grandpa Guido, would see his wife before heading off to war. It was a dim summer day and they were standing outside of their house. My grandpa was already in his uniform and my grandmother was in a slim dress. She was standing on her tippy toes and kissing my grandpa as if it was the last time she would see her Guido again. Luckily, Guido returned from the cockpits of the U.S. Air Force, but sadly didn't live long enough to see my first birthday. I never got to meet my grandpa, but that one picture taught me a lot about life, about love, about liberty, and about the pursuit of happiness. My grandpa Guido was a veteran and I have always looked up to him.

You know, I don't just love that picture on my desk because it looks like a scene out of Casablanca, I love that picture because inside of that frame's borders is one ugly house on top of some dry dead land, with a couple of old and withered trees in the background. But in the middle of that photo are two people who madly love each other and are willing to let each other go to protect their country. That's what I celebrate when I see the flag; I'm celebrating the soldiers who served their country, their people, and their God. I'm celebrating the beauty that's inside the picture of our world, despite any war that's going on inside its borders. That beauty is the veterans of the United States of American.


(I would post the picture here but don't know how, so will post in on My Profile under Pictures and albums.)

Thank you for reading.

Gung Ho,

Ray