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Margate School Celebrates Patriotism
• Mother of fallen soldier speaks out about the need for nationalism in SoFla
Friday,
May 15, 2009
“I’m a pure patriot, a total American, and I don’t see things any other way,” said Beth Agami, mother of fallen hero, Specialist Daniel J. Agami, killed in action in Iraq on June 21, 2007.
Beth Agami is concerned that patriotism is taking a back seat in the lives of South Floridians. So many come from other lands, she says, and don't celebrate with their children the history and traditions associated with American freedom.
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A bronze plaque of Specialist Agami guards the gate of Margate’s Hebrew Academy, the school Agami attended as a young man and where 10-year old sister Shaina is now enrolled.
When Daniel attended the Academy years ago, Beth noticed that some classrooms lacked an American Flag for the Pledge of Allegiance.
“I went to Lowes and asked them to donate flags for Academy classrooms. The manager, a war veteran himself, didn’t even think twice,” Agami said.
Daniel enlisted after 911, said Beth, because “he knew what he had to do to defend American freedom.”
“We were very proud of him for enlisting at the time and have no regrets that he did,” said Beth, “Of course we’ll never get over the fact that he's gone.”
Students at the Margate Hebrew Academy recently visited the Jewish Museum of Florida, where Agami’s uniform was on loan from the Academy for an exhibit entitled “Florida Jews in the Military,” a tribute to Jewish heroism and sacrifice.
Shaina recalls her brother’s death, how she cried “was sad and a little mad” she said, but understands Daniel sacrificed his life so others could be free.
Making sense out of the loss of her brother, Shaina says the “war should and should not happen—though we have to fight to be free,” she said, “people have lost so many loved ones.”
Despite how some Americans may feel about the war in a political sense, said Beth “the bottom line is we all need to support our soldiers and thank them whenever we see them in the community.”
SPC Agami fought for the 126th Army infantry, the hardest hit Army infantry unit since the Vietnam War, say military analysts. Felled by a roadside bomb, Agami was decorated with the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star and the Army Commendation for saving lives.
Agami is revered by Academy students who pay regular homage to his dress uniform and camouflage-colored yarmulke that hang in the school's synagogue.
Beth said it hasn’t been easy for her and her family and is thankful for the Tragedy Assistant Program for Survivors (TAPS), an organization dedicated to helping the families of soldiers killed in action.
On December 23, 2009, Daniel Agami’s brother ILan brought a baby boy into the world. His name...Daniel.
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