By Richard Eckert Sr., American Legion Post 42, Ocean Springs, Miss.

This past weekend we celebrated the 4th of July - 238 years of freedom.Many of us displayed our American flag and some communities placed flags in their neighborhood.
Our national commander, Daniel M. Dellinger, who testified before Congress on
the VA scandal, had this to say about the impact of the Legion: "We are the nation's largest advocacy group for veterans. Our membership totals 2.3 million and supports programs such as Boys State and American Legion Baseball." Having myself just returned from a trip in the Northwest United States, I was informed that Starbucks started in Seattle and has thousands of stores. The American Legion has more posts in the United States than Starbucks and McDonald's have stores.
Commander Dellinger goes on to say, "Without a strong membership the Legion would not be able to organize town halls, survey VA medical centers, sponsor job fairs or help veterans start businesses. Without a strong membership, the Legion wouldn't have the funds to assist wounded warriors,children
of U.S. servicemembers killed on active duty and victims of natural disasters."

Recently, Post 42 presented a flag to Mayor Moran of Ocean Springs, to be displayed at the Emile Ladnier Monument in front of the Mary O'Keefe Cultural Center of Arts and Education at 1600 Government Street, by Post 42 Commander Marvin Anglin. Post 42 of Ocean Springs numbers 130-plus and continues to grow. We meet each third Monday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at the Senior Citizen's Center on Washington Avenue.

(Eckert is post historian and media representative for Post 42.)