VIETNAM VET STRESSES FREEDOM TO STUDENTS

The sixth annual Missouri Freedom Forum kicked off here Sunday night as 206 Missouri high school students listened to their first lecturer of the three-day event.

Blair Moran, a special agent for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Sikeston, presented "Freedom: Do We Take It For Granted?" at the University Center on the Southeast Missouri State University campus.

Moran, who was born in Charleston, fought in Vietnam and is a highly decorated veteran. He is also active in POW-MIA affairs. He represented Sikeston American Legion Post 114 at the forum.

Moran asked the students if they were stopped by authorities before they came to the forum, if they were expecting to see FBI or CIA agents there to spy on everyone, and if they feared speaking out during the forum under fear of punishment.

He established those questions to show the students that the U.S. does have freedoms from centralized government. Then, he told the students to think about those questions while watching a movie called "The Children's Story" by James Clavel.

The short movie centered around a fictional time when the U.S. was taken over by communist forces. The new leaders were replacing old school teachers with party line teachers that would teach children of second-grade age how to think the way of the party.

It took a total of 24 minutes for the new teacher to change the children's perceptions about the Pledge of Allegiance, the U.S. flag and God.

"This system of government has been found to be a total failure," said Moran after the movie. "Communism across the world is disintegrating and moves to more democratic policies are being established.

These changes are so fast that Moran said he really never thought he would see the day when the Berlin Wall would come down.

Moran talked about the sacrifices U.S. soldiers have made for U.S. freedoms since Dec. 7, 1941, the day of Pearl Harbor and the day the U.S. entered World War II.

The scenes of war and personal sacrifice for country Moran presented to the students were reminders of how treacherous war can be. He read personal accounts of torture from U.S. soldiers who were involved in the Bataan Death March during World War II all the way up to Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm.

"But if there is anything you remember from my presentation," said Moran, "remember the sacrifice Mike Christian made for his fellow POWs."

Christian, said Moran, was a soldier in Vietnam who, as a captured POW, made a U.S. flag from a bamboo needle that he and his fellow

IP0,0soldiers said the Pledge of Allegiance to every day. After the Vietnamese found the flag and beat him for two hours, Christian, bloody and swollen, proceeded to make a new flag so he and the others could continue saying the Pledge.

IP1,0"I really loved his presentation," said Aaron Cornman of Gideon, "and it was very informative. He really made me think about all the guys that have risked their lives to save our freedoms."

Jason Walker of Perryville also said he was pleased with Moran's presentation. He said that he was a good speaker and that he made him more aware of what sacrifices were actually made.

Before and after the presentation, the Cape Girardeau American Legion Louis K. Juden Post 63 raised and lowered the flag in front of Academic Hall. It was the first time in the six years the forum has been held in Cape Girardeau that such a ceremony took place.

Tom Giles, commander of the legion, spoke at both ceremonies. Giles, who served in the Air Force, said that the U.S. flag is the third oldest national standard flag in the world. He said that an act of Congress in 1888 reduced the number of red and white stripes to 13 and that a new star would be added to the flag once a new state was admitted into the union.

The forum will continue until Tuesday with four presentations given Monday and three on Tuesday. It is designed to provide young people the opportunity to discuss with professional speakers, business leaders, legislators and counselors the basics of the American economic and governmental systems; the contrasting principles of other governments and economies, and the philosophy of private enterprise and participation in democratic society.