On the Montel Show today, one of his heroes he honored was a little girl named Lizzie, who died at the age of 13 on May 12, 2006. She suffered her whole life with cystic fibrosis, juvenile arthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis, yet her goals and dreams were to do something for the troops.
She started the organization “Troop Batteries,” after she’d talked to some troops about what they are not getting that they need. Her life-long goal was to send over a million batteries before it was all over, but she didn’t make it through to see it. Operation Gratitude gave them some assistance in mailing by placing a pack of batteries in each of their packages.
Only half a million batteries had been donated before she died, but her mother and grandmother have taken the torch and carried it onward.
I wasn’t going to include the final part of this clip because Montel brings in politics on the subject about the war, but Lizzie’s “Gram” said that Lizzie had been asked those questions by interviewers before, and she said Lizzie always said “don’t talk to me about my politics; talk to me about my project. It has nothing to do with my politics.
“It has to do with my supporting the men and women who are over there doing something for me. If they get four little batteries from me, how excited will they be!? And then I know that I will have done one tinly little thing for them.” What a courageous little girl…. This will truly bring a tear to your eye - if not make you bawl outright.
Can you imagine an 11-year-old little girl with cystic fibrosis saying she has to do something for our military men and women because they are putting their “lives on the line” for us? God has another precious angel in heaven helping him welcome the new soldiers home.
Please folks, if you can spare a pack (or 5) of batteries, please visit her site here and donate in her honor to the troops. Montel’s Show has several links to services and organizations that you can check out to help in thanking our troops. Again, I give thanks for people like Lizzie. Read some of the letters from the troops that have written Lizzie - read them aloud to Lizzie so she can hear them now.
Montel Williams spent his entire show today giving his thanks to the U.S. Military men and women who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and all around the world. Montel says he himself was in the military for 22 years, and today was a good day for Montel viewers.
Today we got to meet Capt. Scott Southworth, who was in charge of northeast Baghdad from the Wisconsin National Guard MP company, in one of the most notably dangerous areas. His 146-member unit, while there, received 23 Purple Hearts, as well as 21 Bronze Stars. He fondly remembers Thanksgiving 2004 as his best Thanksgiving ever. They invited their Iraqi Police Force fellow officers, their interpreters and families to Thanksgiving dinner. He couldn’t help but realize the symbolism and similarity in his unit being the foreigners there sharing a bounty of food with the Iraqis, much like the Pilgrims did at Plymouth Rock.
Scott went to Iraq to change hearts and minds, but had his heart changed instead by a young orphan boy named Ala’a. Ala’a has cerebral palsy, and he made a promise to him that he wasn’t sure he could keep; that he would come back to see Ala’a. He wasn’t sure he would make it out of Iraq alive, but sooner or later, this young boy named Ala’a had so stolen Scott’s heart, that he began “Operation Rescue Ala’a,” which was no small feat. Adoptions are not legal in Iraq, so he went through all the political channels he knew how until he could get it done.
Capt. Southworth left Iraq, ran for D.A. in his home county in Wisconsin and won, then went back to Iraq (along with help of then Homeland Secretary, Tom Ridge) using “Humanitarian Parole” to arrange the transport and permanent move of Ala’a to the United States.
Scott may have gone to Iraq a solider; but he returned home a father. God bless all of the soliders over there, and it’s too bad we don’t see more stories like this.
Recently Lawrence O’Donnell freaked out on Scarborough Country, calling everyone on the panel, including himself, too cowardly to serve in the military. Terry Moran, Joe and Michael Crowley are genuinely stunned by O’Donnell’s behavior.
Can you believe this? Aren’t we over this whole chickenhawk thing already? Puhleaze!
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