Saturday, May 15, 2004

To the Armed Forces: Congratulations on Armed Forces Day
To the people of The United States: Happy Armed Forces Day

Congratulations to the men and women in uniform for your service and sacrifice to keep us safe. You are the front line defense against those who are envious of our way of life and would destroy it if they could.

To the people of The United States, be happy that we can rely on those in uniform and their families and friends at home who worry and pray for them every day.

Marine Corps Hymn

At my 4:00 class yesterday, two of the students arrived with recorders (the little flutes that kids are taught to play in school). One began playing The Hymn. I was surprised that Mexican school students would be taught a U.S. military hymn in school, especially one that features the words, "from the halls of Montezuma" in the first verse. They did not know why they were being taught this hymn, but I will ask around to see if any Mexican teachers or administrators know why. They knew the name of The Hymn (Himno de los Marinos) in Spanish, but did not know any of the words. They do now. I had to look up The Hymn on the net because I could not remember verses 2 and 3. I wrote the 3 verses on the white board and had the class copy the words into their notebooks. I explained the first verse only because we ran out of time. We'll read, practice pronunciation and add vocabulary words from The Hymn on Monday.

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