Sunday in Pulaski County declared Local Day of Prayer, ‘Julius Long Day’
This Sunday (March 29) will have special meaning locally for at least a couple of reasons. It has been declared as both a Local Day of Prayer in Pulaski County, and as “Julius Long Day.”
A resolution declaring the Day of Prayer was approved Monday night by the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors. Back on March 9, during a work session on next year’s county budget, the supervisors approved a resolution proclaiming the day as “Julius Long Day.”
The Day of Prayer declaration comes on the heels of the board’s ratifying an earlier Declaration of Local Emergency by County Administrator Jonathan Sweet due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
The resolution approved Monday – which appears in its entirety today on page A6 – states that more than 150 years ago “one of our greatest leaders, President Abraham Lincoln, felt led by God to call this great nation and all who resided herein to seek the Lord in a day of prayer, fasting and humiliation.”
“Subsequent presidents of the United States and governors from around this country have honored that call and have made similar calls to prayer in times of great need and circumstance,” the resolution continues.
“We as a county have found ourselves in unprecedented times and now face unknown challenges and various threats to our health, economy and way of life, due to potential permeation and spread of COVID-19 within our community, throughout the Commonwealth, the country and the world,” the declaration states.
The declaration goes on to call on Pulaski County citizens to “collectively, in one accord, seek God’s mercies, favor and grace upon our community in this time of monumental crisis.”
The declaration closes by saying the Board of Supervisors encourages all Pulaski Countians to “voluntarily honor this county Day of Prayer and fervently pray for our health, our economy, our county, this nation, our leaders and all those affected by COVID-19 and our swift recovery.”
The declaration of “Julius Long Day” appropriately falls on the National Vietnam Veteran’s Day, which is set aside each year in honor and memory of the country’s Vietnam veterans.
Long, a Pulaski County native, was taken captive in 1968 after his Special Forces Camp was overrun by the North Vietnamese. His capture came after he had eluded his captors for three days. He was only 19 at the time.
Long spent five years as a Prisoner of War. His time in a POW camp in Hanoi was deemed as “a time when hell was in session.”
During his time as a prisoner, he was forced to endure a walk of 600 miles to his Hanoi prison camp.
He was eventually released in 1973.
The resolution – which appears today on page A6 – calls on the county’s citizens to “observe this day in honor and memory of all of our Vietnam Veterans from Pulaski County that valiantly served our country in this war.”
The idea of declaring the day in honor of Long was presented to the county by Dallas Cox, himself a Vietnam veteran.
By MIKE WILLIAMS, The Patriot