BLESS HER HEART

You know, just when you've just about given up on today's kids, one like Nichelle Cushing comes along and restores all faith. From the Anchorage Daily News:

The 15-year-old Palmer High School sophomore never met Pierce, an 80-year-old widower when he died Aug. 13 in Anchorage. She only knew he was a military veteran and thus deserved to have the traditional "lights out" signal played at his funeral and to have it played by a living, breathing human being.

"I feel our servicemen should be buried with an actual bugler," she said, "not a recording."

A few years ago, she watched a televised veteran's service at which taps was sounded from a boombox. The mechanical music offended her, so she found a battered Civil War-era bugle, taught herself to play it and, at age 11, became the youngest member of Bugles Across America.

We haven't had much good news this past week, but Nichelle Cushing's story is one that will carry me for quite some time. Read the whole story here. Then share it.

BUGLES ACROSS AMERICA

NEWS FOOTAGE ON ECHO TAPS--MUST SEE (Kitty Litter country)

Hat tip: Ace of Spades