While at the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training on Saturday, Pastor T.M. Talbot-Moses and Mayor Pat Stoner were talking about how Tyrone could show its support for the troops serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. After thinking for a couple minutes, they quickly decided to hang yellow ribbons throughout the community.
A service was held at the City Hotel Park in Tyrone to kick off the campaign.
Yellow ribbons are displayed near military bases when they have troops deployed and will be displayed in Tyrone until our troops come home.
In her opening remarks to the 50 or more people who attended the service, Mayor Pat Stoner welcomed and thanked the members of the community for attending.
“We unite to pay tribute to our men and women in uniform who are in harms way,” said the mayor. “We offer our support by raising our voices in prayer during this very somber time in our nation. Just today we were informed that some of our brave warriors have already made the ultimate sacrifice. Others have been taken prisioner today and others are listed as missing. It is a grim reminder that the most sophisticated technology in the world can’t make us invincible. God is the master of the universe and through him our prayers can be the most powerful force.”
The mayor spoke of the purpose of the yellow ribbons.
“As a visible sign of our prayers for and our support of our men and women in the military, we’ll be tying yellow ribbons in the trees in our downtown district,” said Stoner. “I ask that you too display yellow ribbons on your homes and businessesin honor of our troops.”
Pastor Talbot-Moses has helped organize many special services in Tyrone over the past 18 months. She organized the 9-11 service, a one-year 9-11 memorial and a special service on Wednesday night as Operation Iraqi Freedom started in full force.
“We come to this time of a call of prayer to unite our hearts around God’s word, to lift up our hearts in prayer for our nation, our president, our world leaders our military troops and all of the civillians who too are on the front lines, aiding in the cause. We hope that you will proudly display yellow ribbons and in no way will our liberty and freedom ever be compromised in this great nation.”
After a short service in the park, Talbot-Moses talked about the yellow ribbon concept.
“While we were at the CERT training yesterday, Mayor Stoner said wouldn’t it be nice if we would launch a yellow ribbon campaign in support of the troops,” said Talbot-Moses. “I thought it was a really neat idea. We decided to call the people together and have it at the City Hotel Park. With the grim news that we received this morning and this afternoon, it couldn’t have come at a better time. I thought we had a great turnout.”
When Talbot-Moses was watching the coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom on television, she took a bit of pride in Tyrone.
“They showed a board on CNN today of people who are deployed and I thought to myself that our community did it first,” said Talbot-Moses of the display at Columbia Ancillary Services. “I feel very proud to be a part of this community.”
While people are protesting in other parts of the United States, more than 50 people gathered on a beautiful Sunday afternoon to show their support to the troops and pray to God that they return safely.
