Yes We Can!

In 1976, Kellogg’s ran the above campaign, and chose to put the pictures and biographies of various historical figures on their most popular brands of cereal. Here are the words and pictures of the three cereal box panels of Betsy Ross, Daniel Boone, and Clara Barton I’ve kept since I was twelve or thirteen (a long time ago).

1776 was a time of doubt and fear for Americans. We were thirteen separate colonies struggling for our independence from England, the most powerful empire in the world. Our founding fathers knew the efforts would fail…unless the colonists united for the common goals liberty and free democracy.

We needed a symbol of unity. The story is told of how George Washington visited a young seamstress named Betsy Ross in June of 1776. He asked her to make a flag. Betsy sewed to together thirteen white and red bars for each of the colonies. In the upper left-hand corner she added as many stars against a blue field to represent our new union.

The flag joined Washington’s troops in their march to victory. It flew proudly above our first capitol. It moved west with the settlers through unknown wilderness. And finally, it crossed the heavens to the moon.

Today, the legend of Betsy Ross stands for individual patriotism… just as the flag stands for unity and democracy. It’s our responsibility to prosper from their meaning…for the good of mankind.

For Daniel Boone, pioneer America was a great adventure. His restless love for the outdoors lured him into a forbidden wilderness of fierce animals and unfriendly Indian tribes.

Heading westward from the Carolinas in 1775, Daniel found traces of a path that Indian warriors used for centuries. He forged it through the Cumberland Mountains and deep into Kentucky. There, at the end of the famous Wilderness Trail, he established the settlement of Boonesborough.

Daniel was taken prisoner by the Shawnee Indians three years later. Threatened with death, he challenged his captors to tests of skill and courage. He proved himself so worthy that Chief Blackfish adopted him into the tribe.

What Daniel learned from Indian wisdom aided him in protecting fellow pioneers from Indian attacks. One day Boonesborough was stormed by 400 warriors. Daniel, along with only 30 men and 20 boys, held them off and saved the village.

Boone’s America was a turbulent frontier. Yet he had the grit to dare the unknown so others might follow and thrive there. For those like Daniel Boone who are meant to lead…a thousand new American frontiers await you.

They called her the “Angel of the Battlefield.” During the Civil War, Clara Barton treated hundreds of wounded where medical care was scarce. The battles ended in 1865, but not for her. There were innocent victims of other disasters in need of emergency assistance.

While doing relief work during and after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, Clara became impressed with the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross, promoter of the first Geneva Convention of 1864, which protected wounded soldiers. She returned to the United States in 1873 to begin the task of creating an American Red Cross Society. But her program met with resistance from government officials who did not wish to enter into any entangling alliances, even humanitarian ones.  Finally, after eight years of struggle, Miss Barton founded the American Red Cross in May, 1881, and became its first president.

During the next twenty-three years, Miss Barton and her fellow Red Cross workers assisted victims of many natural disasters, such as the Ohio-Mississippi Flood of 1884, the Johnstown Flood of 1889, and the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. She went to Cuba in 1898 during the Spanish-American War to give comfort and relief to American soldiers. Her efforts proved that a nation cannot flourish only by sharing triumphs. It must also share the tragedies. As Clara Barton found the strength to aid hundreds who suffered, so might you in your own way…. And help preserve the greatness of America for all the generations to come.