Speaking up for America

Havent read anything positive about the United States of America lately? Can hardly remember exactly why we fought all those wars or what that is worthwhile came out of them? The author of this book of 12 speeches and several essays was the invited speaker in those difficult Sixties and Seventies on Independence Day, Naturalization Day, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day at gatherings in Southern Oregon. There he spoke from the heart (and his years of historical training) to the matter of our wars and their reasons for being waged. Large audiences and small alike stood or sat while Vaughn Davis Bornet delivered short orations that speak directly to sensitive matters. In the Country and around the World at the time there grew to be muttering and questioning; many tuned out or dropped out as the drug culture and draft resistance moved in on the spirit that had won World War II and earlier World War I. The Rogue River Valley is a place of small towns; the locale is just north of California, in the mountains, but Ashland, Medford, and the smaller places are in valleys where old values continue to be honored in ceremonies that honor our service personnel year after year. This book, whose prose is in most cases forty years old, returns readers to an older time. It does so without apology, for the author admits from the very beginning to being patriotic. His essay/speeches are, in a word no longer in general use, patriotics. The authors publications and bio appear on pages 150 -153. Since most of the words in this book were created to be spoken aloud, why not read a few paragraphs or pages to a friend or relative?