Is Kerns one of the Becker Brothers?
Posted on 04/04/2007 7:50:34 PM PDT by Lady J USA 1981
Published: April 04, 2007 10:50 am
In Washington, a stain on sacred ground
Richard Kerns Cumberland Times-News
If peace is flowing like a river, my backyard sewer line is sorely ill at ease.
To maintain a modicum of taste in this demented space, I'll be brief and discreet in addressing said subject de yuck. But as surely as a flush will flow downhill until it can't, at which point it will reverse course into one's basement, such a diversion is inevitable. For images of the past week, to say nothing of scents, were so searing as to permeate my very being.
Plumbing. Makes one long for the days of the outhouse. So much aggravation and expense, all to spare a chill bottom on a frigid winter's eve. This time around, the porcelain god demanded pipe-reaming penance for the dual offense of tree roots and a terra-cotta-kinky sewer line.
I think of Charles Ingalls at such times, not only summoning Pa's patience and fortitude, but envying his PVC-free Little House. That is, until I recall that he and Ma only took baths once a week. Mercy.
Speaking of effluent, a recent letter to the editor reeked of jingoistic bombast in detailing the writer's participation in a counter protest to the March 17 anti-war march in Washington. I lay not a whit of claim to the noble fraternity that is the Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 172, but hope that at least some of the members who traveled to Washington that day were uncomfortable, not only with the crude letter of this Saturday past, but with the event itself.
Not for demonstrating; getting up at dawn, driving three hours and wading through crowds to make their voices heard. Red, Blue or any political hue, that's kicking citizenship up a notch. Downright American. It was the venom I'd have them disavow.
The next day's Washington Post featured pictures of enraged counter-demonstrators, and the accompanying story reinforced the images with vitriolic quotes, similar to the tone of the Altoona letter. I have no problem with flag-waving, chest-pounding, bird-flipping passion, but as the letter and story made evident, many were spoiling for a fight.
The flames were sparked and stoked by an Internet campaign that shamelessly played on reverence for our nation's memorials. This "Gathering of Eagles" maliciously and falsely alleged that the protesters were out to deface The Vietnam Memorial, among other national treasures. "Rally to the Mall," went the call, and they commenced to juice everybody up for a conflict wholly of their own creation.
It is sacrilege to politicize the nation's monuments, to belligerently claim ownership of that which belongs to all Americans. And while there may be a nut or two at any protest, the authorities are well equipped to deal with them. Just as Derby Day of old - when beer flowed cold - was the worst day of the year to get drunk and rowdy on Frostburg's Main Street, so too is a protest march the worst time to deface public property on the Mall.
As with George W. Bush and Iraq, the cause-beli of the "gathering" was bunk.
Nor did the organizers fulfill their vaunted mission, which, according to the group's Web site, is "to stand silent guard" over the memorials, in a manner that is "non-violent and non-confrontational."
"The vets turned both sides of Constitution (Avenue) into a bitter, charged gauntlet for the war protesters," the Post reported. "'Jihadists!' some vets screamed."
Contrary to aspersions cast upon them like the manure some "eagles" tossed, peace activists marched in the spirit of the men whose names appear upon The Wall.
It was the signature lesson of the Vietnam War, embraced by Americans across the wide political divide in testament to the sacrifice embodied by those 58,249 names on polished black granite: Never again would the warrior be blamed for the war.
As a reporter with the Frederick News-Post in the fall of 1990, I covered a symposium at Mount Saint Mary's on the eve of the Gulf War. Many in the audience opposed military action to dislodge Saddam Hussein's armies from Kuwait, but in stating their position on the nation's first major conflict since Vietnam, young and old alike invariably attached a caveat: We support the troops. Lesson not only learned, but taken to heart, as a people and a nation.
Seventeen years later, I have yet to see evidence to the contrary in the current conflict overseas. Indeed, the American people rose in righteous anger at the revelation that the administration wasn't taking proper care of our wounded. Our wounded. Just like they are our monuments. Yours and mine.
I'm left to wonder as to March 17, had I marched with others opposed to the war. What would have been my welcome, had I left those ranks and approached The Wall, just beyond the wall of anger surrounding it?
Would the letter writer have stepped from my path? What if I told him I'd come seeking the space where the name and memory of Joseph Patrick Rowley reside, just as they do outside the VVA hall on Liberty Street? Maybe if I told him how my distant cousin was aboard a C-130 making a hop to DaNang and the sweet ride home after a year in-country, when the plane crashed in fog, killing all 28 aboard, including John D. Saville, also of Cumberland.
Perhaps, if he still knew me only as "dirtball," I might mention Stella Rowley, mother of Joseph Patrick, who this October will mark 40 years since her baby died at age 20. Would he allow me to etch her son's name?
This nation's been at war far too long, and far too long at war with itself. The counter demonstration of March 17 was bitter fruit the politics of division.
We must indeed stake out and defend those few remaining DMZs upon America's charred political landscape, where countrymen all can unite around shared ideals, shared history, shared sacrifice.
Sanctified at dearest cost, one such sanctuary is the hallowed ground before The Vietnam Wall...
http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/138152/index.php
“bring some paint so we can spray the wall.”
DC Indymedia | 06 Mar 2007 | dylan
Posted on 03/06/2007 9:37:18 PM EST by Citizen SMASH
Anti-authoritarian bloc on the 17th? Author: A Date Created: 06 Mar 2007
About the demo on March 17th:
People who are planning a black bloc, youth bloc, SDS bloc or something like that should announce it so more than 10 people can join in and make it worthwhile.
Comments Re: Anti-authoritarian bloc on the 17th? 06 Mar 2007 by DAAWN
Come to NCOR there should be folks getting together there to plan stuff! It will be announced we just need to plan stuff!
Re: Anti-authoritarian bloc on the 17th? 06 Mar 2007 by dylan
bring some paint so we can spray the wall.
http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/138152/index.php
http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/013007/uscp.html
New details have surfaced regarding the incident where protesters were allowed to scrawl graffiti on the lower west terrace of the Capitol building.
According to a Democratic leadership aide, 50 to 60 protesters, rather than the 300 figure that was reported by The Hill over the weekend, were involved in the act of vandalism, which took place after the main peace march took place. The aide said a large tour group was leaving the Capitol simultaneously as the protesters approached the Capitol. The staffer also said that contrary to initial accounts, the Capitol was not shut down in the wake of the protesters approaching the building.
While the Democratic aide said that the graffiti was mainly made with chalk and spray paint, other sources detailed the use of permanent markers as well as spray paint.
A police source indicated police took photographs and video after the incident occurred. The photos were not made available to the press. According to sources, police were ordered by Morse and Deputy Chief Daniel Nichols to break their security line and fall back from 3rd Street S.W. to the Capitol steps.
http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/012507/protesters.html
Anti-war protesters were allowed to spray paint on part of the west front steps of the United States Capitol building after police were ordered to break their security line by their leadership, two sources told The Hill.
According to the sources, police officers were livid when they were told to fall back by U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) Chief Phillip Morse andDeputy Chief Daniel Nichols. “They were the commanders on the scene,” one source said, who requested anonymity. “It was disgusting.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9iodh1HNIQ
DC Chapter is confronted by the looney left
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WidXymvpxJE&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5q9maZOuWg&mode=related&search=
Looks like it backed up through his mouth.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=13066
Al Qaeda Relying on ‘Peace’ Movements
By Center for Security Policy
CenterForSecurityPolicy.org | April 20, 2004
Borrowing a page from North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap, Osama bin Laden is making the US and European “peace” movement an instrument of his strategy.
The al Qaeda leader’s most recent tape, aired on Al Jazeera April 15, “appeared to mark a new strategy of trying to manipulate antiwar sentiment in Europe to bring pressure on governments that support the United States,” according to the Washington Post.
Spanish voters’ election of an anti-American socialist in the days following the March train bombings in Madrid encouraged al Qaeda. In his tape, the Post reports, “Bin Laden refers to demonstrations in Europe as ‘positive interaction’ and mentions ‘opinion polls, which indicate that most European peoples want peace.’”
Bin Laden is openly trying to exploit politicial divisions in Europe and the US in the way that General Giap counted on the American “peace” movement to weaken the American people’s resolve even though they were winning the war. Former North Vietnamese General Staff officer Bui Tin once said that the “peace” movement was “essential to our strategy.”
The open support of Hanoi by Jane Fonda, former Attorney General Ramsey Clark (now head of International ANSWER, which coordinates the largest protests) and others “gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses,” Bui Tin said. “Through dissent and protest,” the US “lost the ability to mobilize a will to win.”
I gotta get ready for work. I don’t want my blood pressure to go any higher then required.
Bill Clinton stained that now? And I thought the White House sink was bad.
Please send your post, especially the pictures, to the author.
I didn’t know metaphors could rally, let alone riot.
” We must indeed stake out and defend those few remaining DMZs upon America’s charred political landscape, where countrymen all can unite around shared ideals, shared history, shared sacrifice. “
First, Mr.Kerns has no understanding of what a “DMZ”
really is since he speaks of it as a townhall meeting or a village green, that is certainly not any DMZ I ever saw.
Second, if it is such shared space, why would he want to stake it out and “defend” it, and from whom?
Baaaah, liberals, it would almost be worth it to watch the
jihadists exterminate them.
ozzymandus—I think you meant to ping rlmorel instead of me.
Yes, thanks.
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