Posted on 03/15/2006 1:10:37 PM PST by RDTF
WASHINGTON -- Americans have heard much about coffins returning from Iraq without media coverage; they've heard about military funerals unattended by the commander in chief; they've also heard endlessly about a certain military mother who lost a son in Iraq.
What they don't hear much about are the quiet events and private meetings that often take place in the Oval Office between President George W. Bush and military families. Or the Friday-night steak dinners local restaurateurs throw for wounded vets from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. -snip- The man in business attire was Dr. Paul Wolfowitz, former deputy defense secretary and now head of the World Bank. Wolfowitz listened intently, asked a few questions, then joined Serna and others for a group photo. And so the evening went, with the former deputy quietly making the rounds -- listening and shaking hands -- and lingering for a while after the wounded were headed back to Walter Reed.
In fact, I learned, you can find Wolfowitz here most Friday nights -- at least twice a month -- meeting with the wounded and hearing their stories. No fanfare or fuss, which is why many outside of Washington don't know about it.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
Great "awwww" Military Story Ping
Good for Wolfowitz....
US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz (right) watches trainees from the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps as he listens to US Lieutenant Colonel and 1-22 Commander Steven Russell (left) during a visit to a US base in the north-eastern Iraqi town of Tikrit. Photo: AFP Oct. 26 2003
Wonderful article. May God bless Paul Wolfowitz, Hal Koster, Marty O'Brien, and our heroic warriors.
And may God Bless America!
Hey DCers, ping your pals!!
I've seen Wolfowitz there three times. Each time he stayed until he had spoken to everyone for as long as each wanted. It was a privelege to shake his hand.
Anyone see any Democrats doing anything like this? Afterall, they publicly tell everyone that they support the military. We just dont' see it anywhere or anyhow.
It is nice , when individuals do good things..expecting no fame, or rewards.
You got it Star!
Ping!
pong
Good deeds should never be bragged about or used as a marketing tool. Many claim this administration is bad at getting the good word out.
I believe Bush simply lives by his convictions. He's keeping his mouth shut and letting God do the rest.
One time there Walmart donated $50K to Fisher House with absolutely no fan fare. On another visit (this one to Ward 57) one of Eisenhower's daughters was making the rounds, apparently she is there frequently. There are a lot of high-profile folks who give quietly. It's encouraging.
bttt
Rolling Thunder attended one Friday last fall and gave $25k to help keep the dinners for our troops going.
These dinners are morale boosters with or without Paul Wolfowitz. My credit goes to the restaurant owners. True hosts and generous ones!
Yeah, I see a couple of them (big guys) when we go. They set up in one corner of the bar while the wife and I open a tab by the door. We always get a couple of NY/LI restaurants to kick in a bit to make it easier for Hal and company.
Another one for your hour of good news.
Wonderful, heartwarming story, llevrok! Dr. Wolfowitz is a deeply caring man to be there for our troops, and Hal Koster and Marty O'Brien are to be congratulated on their kindness and generosity in so regularly providing moral support to our injured vets, along with the steak and ale....
Contrast such behavior with that of Starbucks. The website of the International Musicians Union (a unit of the AFL-CIO) is reporting that certain service personnel in Iraq wrote to Starbucks to say how very much they enjoyed Starbucks coffee; so would Starbucks kindly consider maybe donating some to the troops? They received a blunt, rude reply from Starbucks, not only declining the request, but stating that Starbucks did not support the war in Iraq, the Bush Administration, or our military personnel serving in Iraq, or anyplace else for that matter. How's that for a morale booster!!! Really sweet guys, those Starbucks honchos, huh?
Oh well, Starbucks is located in ultra-lib Seattle.... I guess that must explain their behavior (my apology to any Seattle-area FReeper who might be offended by this remark).
Just think of this incident, the next time you get a hankering for Starbucks coffee! Indeed, I certainly will. Plus my husband has already declared that we will not be buying Starbucks whole-bean French Roast at the supermarket any more....
Thanks so much for the post, llevrok!
Interesting comments about Starbucks. If urban myth, captures the feelings I get from them. If true, then not surprising.
I should note that I've seen a couple of freepers there too.
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/s/starbucks-iraq.htm
"Starbucks told us that many of the company's employees (called "partners" by Starbucks) receive one pound of free coffee each week and some of that coffee has gone to members of the military or related organizations. For example, the employees in the Starbucks in Atascadero, California, decided to send their weekly free coffee to troops in Afghanistan and there are other such stories about Starbucks coffee finding its way into the hands of military personnel."
here is Sgt Wright's response to the story:
Dear Readers,
Almost 5 months ago I sent an e-mail to you my faithful friends. I did a wrong thing that needs to be cleared up. I heard by word of mouth about how Starbucks said they didn't support the war and all. I was having enough of that kind of talk and didn't do my research properly like I should have. This is not true. Starbucks supports men and women in uniform. They have personally contacted me and I have been sent many copies of their company's policy on this issue. So I apologize for this quick and wrong letter that I sent out to you.
Now I ask that you all pass this email around to everyone you passed the last one to. Thank you very much for understanding about this.
Howard C. Wright
Sgt USMC
Dear Ms. Parker,
Thank you so much for a wonderful article about the wounded troops' weekly night out with their families at Fran O'Brien's Steak House in Washington, DC.
For 40 weeks, from March 30 of the past year 2005, the bus returning from Fran O'Brien's to Walter Reed's only evening gate was greeted by anti-war protesters from Code Pink and other leftist groups. Early on, these groups held obscenely distasteful signs, such as "MURDERER", "MAIMED FOR A LIE" or "ENLIST HERE TO DIE FOR HALLIBURTON".
But as soon as their protest "vigils" commenced, groups from the DC Chapters of FReeRepublic.com, ProtestWarrior.com and Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally started facing off across the street against such perversion on the public sidewalk. Soon the "pro-troops, pro-mission" side began outnumbering the leftists by as many as 3- or 4-to-1; and by last summer several articles and TV news shows critical of the protestors began to appear. In response, CodePink and cohorts moderated the tone of their signs to messages claiming to support the troops; meanwhile, they continue to hold lectures and rallies denouncing the war and the Administration, often with help from foreign leftists, providing aid and comfort to the insurgents.
They care so much about the troops, in fact, that 7 weeks ago, Code Pink let lapse their permit for their widely publicized "vigil" at Walter Reed. The "American" side of the street quickly securred the permit, and now hold all four corners of the only entrance/exit at Walter Reed on Friday nights. A highlight of the evening is when the bus returns from Fran O'Brien's, and the patriots cheer for the wounded and hold up signs of welcome and honor to the troops and their families.
CodePink and company have moved to a far less effective location down the block, where there is no meaningful traffic. The vast majority of the beeps and waves from passersby on the 6-lane avenue are delivered up near the gates, for the troop- and mission-supporters.
FreeRepublic.com, a conservative online news forum, has chronicled these events every week for the past 48 weeks, and our DC Chapter is determined to stay at Walter Reed for as long as necessary. Most of us have military ties, and many lived through the Viet Nam era, when the war was "won on the ground and lost in the media." We are committed to counter-protesting today's leftists, who are better funded, better connected through the Internet, and in many cases openly allied with Marxist, socialist, Communist or anarchist groups seeking the overthrow of the U.S. Constitution and most of the rest of Western civilization.
Here are links to two of the articles from FReeRepublic. Weekly updates can be found in the "Chapters/Activism" section of the FR forum every week, or by using the keyword "Walter Reed".
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1473700/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1592838/posts
Thank you, Ms Parker, for publishing some of the soldiers' side of the story. Our men and women in uniform make it possible for the protesters to have a voice. They, and their families, deserve basic human decency when they are wounded. The protesters who cry out about the "occupation of the Iraqi people" don't mind trampling on our own defenders.
Please feel free to contact me, or FreeRepublic's national spokesman Kristinn Taylor, if you want to know any more about this year-long ideological war at the grassroots.
Yours truly,
Albion Wilde
DC Chapter, FReeRepublic.com
;*)
The way it is supposed to be.
Mr. Kostner and his daughter really know how to treat all who enter their establishment. Great people!
Ping to post 26
BTTT!!!!!
maybe so, maybe not. I need to point out that donations from Starbucks employees is not the same thing as a donation from Starbucks Corporate. Plus given Sgt. Wright's "correction of the record," before I decide whether the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) account is truth or fiction, I'd want to see Starbuck's records of its employees' charitable giving of that weekly free coffee of which Starbucks' "mouthpiece," Sgt. Wright, confidently speaks. Bet you a nickel they have no records of that sort.
My speculation FWIW is the word got out, and there was tremendous blowback, right in Starbucks Corporate's face. So they got their publicist to go to work, and Sgt. Wright's "intervention" (which is pretty vague in itself, especially if you're looking for details like, what constitutes poor research in his view?) is the result.
Anyhoot that's my initial take on the crime scene. Looks to me like a put-up job. Of course, I could be wrong about that.
However which way it turns out, hubby and I will still not be buying Starbucks whole-bean French Roast, heretofore our favorite morning beverage, anytime soon. Meanwhile, we'll be cultivating a taste for some other brew.
Thanks for writing, Stone Mountain.
Here is the link from Snopes that debunks that myth.
If you got the info in an email, it is wrong. Most emails in this form are wrong.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/starbucks.asp
No new information here, particularly about the specific points regarding evidence and logic that I raised in my last. Looks like spin to me. But then, I'm a "hard case," a real skeptic.
My little "speculation" as adumbrated above provides scope for the possible situation where some proportion of the Starbucks workforce was so ashamed of their employer's "corporate policy" that they decided to get organized and do something themselves. That was the extent of "Starbucks" giving, and it totally measures in to their "corporate policy."
Read the "corporate policy"; and if you're not completely asleep, you may notice that it is entirely "politically correct": We care only about the local communities where we do business, funding only not-for-profit organizations engaging in works that we approve of, that do not despoil the environment or discriminate on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, race, national origin, ... yada yada, yada.... Jeepers, Karl Marx could have written it!
The point is Starbucks' guideline policy for its corporate giving is designed to exclude U.S. military personnel by deliberate and well-considered definition in the first place. And then these people feel they're innoculated against all public criticism because their policy was so "cleverly written."
If this is actually the present case, then these people are hypocrites and ingrates, who have no respect whatsoever for the people on whom they depend for their own security, for their way of life; for their prestige, money, and power; it seems they have only contempt for the sensibilities of their own customers (not to mention their own employees), without whom they couldn't stay in business in the first place.
Thanks for this conversation, SeeRushToldU_So.
PING
excellent read
What they don't hear much about are the quiet events and private meetings that often take place in the Oval Office between President George W. Bush and military families. Or the Friday-night steak dinners local restaurateurs throw for wounded vets from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
Class Act.
Thanks for the ping!
2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. Matthew 6:2 (New King James Version)
Pretty please take me off your ping list
Urban legends are easily de-bunked at snopes.com. Please use the internet tools available BEFORE spreading this type of falsehoods.
Thanks for the ping. The old media doesn't publish stories like this.
It's called character. What you do when you think nobody's looking, and all that.
This certainly improves my opinion of Paul Wolfowitz. Thanks, guys, for putting this out here.
Terrific letter! We really need more journalists like Ms. Parker, and it's great to show her how much we appreciate her.
American Federation of Musicians looks to be part of AFL-CIO. I could not find an International Musicians' Union. At the AFM site I was not able to locate any press release concerning Starbucks'. Still overpriced for my tastes. If you would provide a link to Starbucks' statement, I would love to pass it around to some of the latte' crowd I can think of.
God bless Paul Wolfowitz.
bttt
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