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Neal McCoy Talks to Everything Nash about his 10th anniversary of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
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0:00
Uh
0:01
it's a big deal for me. I when I started
0:04
saying the pledge of allegiance on
0:05
Facebook, I I just really wrote it one
0:07
time on my Facebook page and and put
0:09
that up and and people said, "Oh, that's
0:12
cool. What what you got going on there?
0:14
What's that about?" You know, are you
0:15
okay? Are you sick? And so then when I
0:17
first started doing it, which was
0:19
January 7th, 2016, uh I did get that a
0:22
lot. People would say, "Hey, man, what's
0:24
why are you doing that? Is is something
0:26
are you okay?" And I said, "Yeah, I'm
0:28
okay. I just it in January of 2016 they
0:31
were still trying to figure out who was
0:33
going to be the Republican nominee and
0:34
the Democrat nominee and so they were
0:37
already going back and forth and you
0:39
know and I said you know what I I I have
0:42
a side but but it doesn't have anything
0:44
to do with this election. I mean, it's
0:46
it's just going to be we'll get in there
0:48
who can get in there and then hopefully
0:49
the people that we that we nominate to
0:52
be senators and congressmen, maybe they
0:55
can all work together and get something
0:56
done for for what we want to get
0:58
something done. But the main reason once
1:00
I started doing it, uh, our my mom died,
1:04
our mom, my brother, sister and I's mom
1:05
died about 3 years into it. And and I
1:08
had been doing it for three years. And
1:09
when she passed, she was just to give
1:11
you a quick I know I talk a lot, a quick
1:14
uh
1:15
look into our past. My mom's from the
1:18
Philippines. She was uh born and raised
1:20
there. So my dad had was in the United
1:22
States Army Corps of Engineers working
1:23
in the Philippines. Fell in love. He's a
1:24
small town guy. fell in love with with
1:26
our mom and she wor she married him.
1:29
They had my brother and sister and I uh
1:31
here and because of mom's dealing with
1:35
her all the time and watching her on the
1:37
phone and listen to her and spending all
1:38
the money that that that the phone cost
1:41
to call the Philippines and staying in
1:44
contact with the embassy just just take
1:45
three or four years trying to just get
1:47
one sibling over. Uh she always told us
1:51
because I would say you know mom why why
1:53
the big deal about this? She said, "You
1:55
you don't understand. You're you're from
1:57
the United States of America and you
1:58
have all the freedoms in the world and
2:00
you don't even you do some stuff not
2:01
even understand that that people
2:03
couldn't do that in other countries
2:04
because you don't know them as freedoms.
2:06
You just know that's a great way we get
2:08
to live." And and so she she instilled
2:11
in us kids, you know, at a young age.
2:13
She said, "You're going to here's what I
2:14
want you to do. You we want you to know
2:16
your God and love your country." And I
2:18
think she did pretty good job. It's
2:19
taken a long time. I was probably the
2:21
last man in my brother and sister a lot
2:23
more squared away than I was. Uh but
2:25
that's why I still continue to do it
2:27
today and just kind of in her honor.
2:29
Are you going to keep doing it after 10
2:31
years?
2:32
I am. I think so. But that's that's a
2:34
question. Yeah, I know.
2:36
When I talked to you last earlier this
2:37
year on the cruise ship, you were like,
2:38
"Oh, I don't know."
2:40
Yeah. Well, I still don't know. And and
2:43
here's I I have in my mind and my body
2:45
and my physical shape that I want to do
2:47
it uh as long as I can, but I tell
2:50
people all the time, too. I said, you
2:51
know, there could be something
2:53
whatever if I get real sick or in an
2:55
accident or something to where where I
2:56
just couldn't get to it, where I just
2:58
couldn't pick up the phone and do it.
3:00
And I said, and then that'll be the last
3:01
day. But right now, while I'm still of
3:04
pretty solid mind, my wife would argue
3:06
that uh and and physically I feel great,
3:10
then I'm going to keep trying to do it.
3:12
And now we've reached so many people, a
3:14
lot of them elderly that are that are in
3:16
homes or just can't get out because
3:18
they're physical. They just can't move
3:20
around much anymore. They will write me
3:22
a lot that uh and I've got an email
3:25
address where people write me and they
3:26
will write me and say, "You know what? I
3:28
don't have anything to do today. I look
3:30
forward to that moment. I that gives me
3:32
something a reason to just get up and
3:35
live another day sometime because I know
3:37
you're going to be on there. We're going
3:38
to say the pledge of allegiance together
3:40
and and you're going to try and make us
3:41
smile and you do a great job of it. Uh
3:44
and I think I think I I don't I would
3:47
feel like I just left them and and and
3:49
10 years is a long time. So to quit and
3:52
then they're going to pick up their
3:53
phone tomorrow and say, "Well, what
3:55
happened?" He we become friends and and
3:57
that's that's the way they look at it.
3:59
So in turn, that's the way I look at it.
4:01
So I don't really want to pull the rug
4:03
out from under. I'm going to keep doing
4:04
it until something happens that I just
4:06
can't. What's the weirdest place you've
4:08
said it?
4:10
I tell you the most awkward places is
4:12
and I've done it in probably 10 times in
4:15
airports because I'm running and running
4:17
running and I'm going to be flying so
4:18
much I know I'm not going to have any
4:19
time to do it. So I try and and and and
4:24
some what I say I say when I'm in the
4:26
airport on I say y'all I'm going to try
4:27
and find me a corner to where I can get
4:30
over here and and take my hat off and
4:31
say the pledge of allegiance. I have a
4:32
flag on my hat all the time. Uh, and
4:34
they'll say, "Well, you ought to just
4:35
stand up in that airport and go, you
4:37
know what? Why don't y'all just do this
4:38
with me?" I said, "I would, and it looks
4:40
good from the outside looking in, but I
4:42
know if I saw a guy or a girl, someone
4:46
just walking down the airport and
4:47
decided to just stop out of the blue and
4:49
take their hat off and start saying the
4:51
pledge of allegiance, I would take off
4:52
running cuz I'd think, oh my gosh, here
4:55
this is the big one." So, so I try to
4:58
not not flaunt it in any way uh because
5:01
of that. I don't because I'm sure
5:02
somebody would see and go, "Man, now
5:04
that's that's spooky.
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