I Am A Square

I am a square. I love our flag and what it stands for. I stand in a parade or anytime the flag goes by. I joy in singing the Star Spangled Banner, and though I am no longer on the playing field, at a football game I get déjà vu and teary-eyed as the National Anthem is played and the players stand in a line on the field. I love saying the pledge of allegiance—with all of its words.
I came from a military family. My great-grandfather John D. T. McAllister was a major in the Nauvoo Legion. My Father, Clarence Moss, served in World War II. My brother , Erwin, served in Korea. I and two of my brothers, David and Mike, served in the Utah National Guard. I have two sons, Ken and Dennis, that served also in the Utah National Guard. My son, Ken, retired from full time service recently.
I enlisted in the Utah National Guard right out of high school at the tail end of the Korean War. I served 5 years of active duty and retired from the military in 1987 with 32 years of reserve and active duty time. The last 17 years of my service was as a military LDS chaplain. After my retirement, I was called back to active duty during the Gulf war and served for over a year, establishing nine (9) family assistance centers in Utah to take care of the financial, social, and legal needs of families who had a family member serving in Desert Storm.
I love this country. I love heroes.
My father was a hero to me. I hope I can adequately honor his name. In the Book of Mormon, Captain Moroni was one of my heroes. He declared on the Title of Liberty, In defense of "our wives and children, our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace.
I relate to Mormon. He led the army at age 16. I enlisted at 18. He fought his last battle at 74. I am presently almost 74.
The early patriots of our country are heroes of mine. I could talk of many, but I will limit my remarks to three:
THOMAS JEFFERSON: Author of the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: He declared boldly, at threat of being hanged for saying it: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.:
PATRICK HENRY on the floor of the Virginia House of Burgesses—IS LIFE SO DEAR OR PEACE SO SWEET AS TO BE PURCHASED AT THE PRICE OF CHAINS AND SLAVERY. FORBID IT, ALMIGHTY GOD. I KNOW NOT WHAT COURSE OTHERS MAY TAKE, BUT AS FOR ME, GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH.
NATHAN HALE: standing on the gallows in the British camp, a noose around his neck, about to be hanged as a spy for George Washington, "MY ONLY REGRET IS THAT I HAVE BUT ONE LIFE TO GIVE FOR MY COUNTRY."
I believe that without question, our founding fathers were raised up by Heavenly Father to lay the groundwork for this great republic. I believe that Heavenly Father chose them from the Noble and Great Ones in the pre-earth life and they were sent to earth at that time for that specific purpose.
On September 16, 1877, Wilford Woodruff, spoke in the Tabernacle concerning the importance of redeeming the dead. At the conclusion of his talk he related that the signers of the Declaration of Independence had recently come to him saying, "You have had the use of the Endowment House for a number of years, and yet nothing has ever been done for us. We laid the foundation of the government you now enjoy, and we never apostatized from it, but we remained true to it and were faithful to God."
His August 21st journal entry of the same year reads: "I … went to the Temple of the Lord this morning and was Baptized for 100 persons who were dead including the signers of the Declaration of Independence…. When Br McAllister had Baptized me for the 100 Names I Baptized him for 21, including Gen Washington & his forefathers and all the Presidents of the United States that were not in my list except Buchanan Van Buren &Grant. Sister Lucy Bigelow Young went forth into the font and was Baptized for Martha Washington and her family and seventy of the Eminent women of the world."
His journal entries speak not only to the baptism of the Declaration of Independence signers, but that George Washington, John Wesley and Christopher Columbus were all ordained as High Priests. On March 19, 1894, he recorded a dream: "I met with Benjamin Franklin….. I spent several hours with him and talked over our Endowments. He wanted some more work done for him than had been done which I promised him."
We are blessed to live in a land prepared by God where our moral agency is nurtured by the arms of our Constitution.
PRESIDENT HINCKLEY AMONISHED US AS A PEOPLE TO "speak up for moral standards in a world where filth, sleaze, pornography and their whole evil brood are seeping over us in a flood."
It is up to us, in these troubled times as we honor to remember the sacrifices made then and teach our children of the divine direction received as this country was created and built to be one nation under God.
Edmund Burke, a member of the British House of Commons, who supported the American colonies in their initial struggle against King George, once said, "all that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.