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...
The GOE stained sacred ground? You gotta be @#$&in me right..!!??
It strikes me that his sewer line is in the back yard.
How freakin’ stupid can you get? Obviously “it” flows back into the basement, is that where the logic is stored?
Obviously, this guy gets his news from the main stream media.
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."
Given this puke's anal onsession, he full of it.
His side vandalized a number of things just six weeks prior and then spit and threatened a wounded soldier. And then they called for their side to meet at The Wall.
Sorry Girlie Man Editor, but we're not going to let that happen and we'll be back.
Seventeen years later, I have yet to see evidence to the contrary in the current conflict overseas. Kerns you stupid bastard, go to YouTube and watch that "peace marcher" tell an ampute from Walter Reed that he was goimng to get a gun an shoot him.
May Kerns’ bathtub overflow with a spring bounty of brown trout...
"...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..."
You obviously DO have a problem with it, you pussy. And yeah, they 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...."
Oh, you mean "reverence" like THIS you liberal TURD?:
"...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. ..."
Yeah. Like the picture above states, sure you hypocritical ass. And the people who spray painted the steps of the capitol building were watched by well equipped authorities who did nothing.
"...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...."
The politics of division?????? From the side of our country that routinely implies the blood of our troops has been shed so Bush and Cheney could line their pockets profiteering from the war???? THAT kind of "Politics of Division" you sanctimonious sack of shit? Or perhaps THIS kind of "politics of division"????
BURNING the flag, DEFECATING on the flag? The FLAG I served under, my father served under and was buried under in Arlington? THAT "politics of division"?
"...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?..."
Your welcome would likely not have been the one you richly deserve.
"...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...."
Oh, this is too rich. You, who side with the people who emasculated our military in Vietnam, who sided with the people who prolonged the war, who openly engaged in treason, who sold the South Vietnamese up the river, whose hands are covered in the blood of the untold numbers who were butchered, imprisioned and repressed because YOU and people like YOU accepted no responsibility for your actions in abandoning them! And YOU have the unmitigated GALL to mention in breathless tones the 58,249 who died there? YOUR PRESENCE AT THE WALL WOULD HAVE BEEN AN OBSCENITY AND A DESECRATION! How DARE you?
"...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...."
I got news for you, bucko. There was NOBODY on the side of the vets who has anything in common with you. There is no "shared ideals". You presume a lot If you think a single person on the other side would share any ideal with a moronic, self-centered jerk like you. Ther is no "shared history". You and your liberal bretheren have written your own blood stained history, going all the way back to your support of Communism in the early Twentieth Century, and extending all the way to Code Pink collecting money for terrorists in Iraq. That is your history.
And you do not know a thing about sacrifice, so stuff your pie-hole with a dirty jockstrap and do the rest of us a favor by not displaying your stupidity and arrogance so openly.
I am nearly beside myself with anger at the breathtaking combination of arrogance, ignorance and hypocrisy in this liberal POS.
This guy should go pick lettuce and stop staining the Internet.
Your post needs to become a letter to this dirtball editor.
You dissect his worthless logic very well.
His moral smugness is nauseating.
I am still steaming. I don’t know how I will get to sleep after reading that.
Sounds to me like the man is trying to rationalize decades of inner guilt.
Outstanding rebuttal, rlmorel.
I have no words. I can’t even think straight after reading this. Do these people honestly believe that everyone on the anti-war side came with jammies and pie to share their undying love and respect with the knuckle-dragging warmongers? Do they really think that in spite of their heartwarming attempts at peaceful co-protests (as if) ONLY the ones who supported the troops and many of those who actually earned the right to stand and defend those monuments were rude potty mouths? This guys arrogance and utter stupidity piss me off.
Cindie
The Left is in fear of plain Americans who are willing to kick their butts. Cops they can deal with, taking video, and filing civil rights lawsuits. But a vet who can punch one out, and anonymously disappear into the crowd is another story
As long as your hands were empty and you were respectful, not a thing would have happened except for maybe a few Vets welcoming you and helping you locate that young man's name on the wall, YOU EFFING LIBERAL MORON!!!!!!!!!!
Lady J...Great catch on this...Great Post..
Nothing could be further from the truth. This Dip$hit writer evidently missed the signs and flags held by the “peace activists” advocating communism and anarchy !
rkerns@times-news.com
Kerns email
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