Last night at Maranatha Church in Decatur, before an exceptional fireworks show lit up the sky, I stood with roughly 16 fellow Americans and received one of the greatest solemn honors of my life: helping hold a massive 10×20 flag retired from the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
As the Star Spangled Banner swelled, we raised it high overhead together. My young sons took their turns too—small hands joining ours under those proud stripes. That flag flew over sacred ground where ordinary passengers became warriors on 9/11, charging the cockpit instead of waiting to be slaughtered.
In that quiet, powerful moment, the truth hit hard: It didn’t take holding a flag to know freedom isn’t free—but that flag certainly proved it. While politicians in Illinois and Washington push gun control, red-flag laws, and disarmament, the heroes of Flight 93 remind us why the Second Amendment exists. Free people don’t beg for permission to defend themselves. They act.
This is the spirit that built America—the refusal to submit. We honor it by staying armed, trained, and vigilant against every threat, foreign and domestic.
Some flags simply wave. This one remembers the battle—and challenges us to reject the victim culture peddled by our elites and prove ourselves worthy of the price paid for liberty.