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Sore Throat
Joined: 01 Sep 2000
Posts: 1802
Location: x |
My American Flag is Flying Today
Mon May 27, 2002 6:04 pm
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...and I wish I could say that it is under clear blue skies.
But that isn't the case.
My flag is flying to honor those generations of Americans who have come before us, who fought and died in horrible ways, in far away places, never to see their loved ones again...giving the ultimate sacrifice in order to preserve and protect an American way of life, rooted in the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution.
How very sad today is.
Just what would they think about the truthfulness of our present government and its attacks on the very Constitution that they fought to defend? |
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KrissaTMC2

Joined: 05 Feb 2002
Posts: 472
Location: Greenwich, CT, USA |
Mon May 27, 2002 6:25 pm
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KrissaTMC2

Joined: 05 Feb 2002
Posts: 472
Location: Greenwich, CT, USA |
Mon May 27, 2002 8:51 pm
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Memorial Day
In 1865, Henry C. Welles, a druggist in the village of Waterloo, NY, mentioned at a social gathering that honor should be shown to the patriotic dead of the Civil War by decorating their graves.
In the Spring of 1866, he again mentioned this subject to General John B. Murray, Seneca County Clerk. General Murray embraced the idea and a committee was formulated to plan a day devoted to honoring the dead.
Townspeople adopted the idea wholeheartedly. Wreaths, crosses and bouquets were made for each veteran's grave. The village was decorated with flags at half mast and draped with evergreen boughs and mourning black streamers.
On May 5, 1866, civic societies joined the procession to the three existing cemeteries and were led by veterans marching to martial music. At each cemetery there were impressive and lengthy services including speeches by General Murray and a local clergyman. The ceremonies were repeated on May 5, 1867.
The first official recognition of Memorial Day as such was issued by General John A. Logan, first commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. This was General Order No. 11 establishing "Decoration Day" as it was then known. The date of the order was May 5, 1868, exactly two years after Waterloo's first observance. That year Waterloo joined other communities in the nation by having their ceremony on May 30.
In 1965, a committee of community leaders started plans for the Centennial Celebration of Memorial Day. The committee consisted of VFW Commander James McCann, chairman, American Legion Commander Oliver J. McFall and Mayor Marion DeCicca, co-chairman, along with Village Trustees, M. Lewis Somerville, Roscoe Bartran, Richard Schreck, Tony DiPronio, and VFW Vice-Commander, Kenneth Matoon. Their goals were: "to obtain national recognition of the fact that Waterloo is the birthplace of Memorial Day through Congressional action" and "to plan and execute a proper celebration for such centennial observance."
In May of 1966, just in time for the Centennial, Waterloo was recognized as the "Birthplace of Memorial Day" by the United States Government. This recognition was long in coming and involved hours of painstaking research to prove the claim. While other communities may claim earlier observances of honoring the Civil War dead, none can claim to have been so well planned and complete, nor can they claim the continuity of observances that Waterloo can.
The Centennial Celebration that year brought dignitaries from government, military, veteran's organizations and descendants of the original founders of Memorial Day. A once luxurious home on Waterloo's Main Street, built in 1850, was purchased from the county and restored. Now the Memorial Day Museum, it houses artifacts of the first Memorial Day and the Civil War era.
Memorial Day is commemorated each year in Waterloo. The parade, speeches, and solemn observances keep the meaning of Memorial Day as it was originally intended to be.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyseneca/memorial.htm
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Today: May 27, 2002 at 12:00:35 PDT
America Remembers Terror Victims
SHANKSVILLE, Pa.- On a holiday normally reserved for remembering the nation's war dead, victims of the Sept. 11 attacks were given a place of honor alongside soldiers who died in battle.
Memories of the attacks made Memorial Day 2002 particularly painful - and poignant.
Scores of people on Monday visited the western Pennsylvania field where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after an apparent struggle between hijackers and passengers.
Ernie Philips, 38, a U.S. Navy commander from Woodbridge, Va., who was in the Pentagon when it was struck by another hijacked jet, stopped at the crash site near Shanksville with his wife and two children during a trip home from Ohio.
"These folks, in my mind, saved so many lives," said Philips, standing by a chain-link fence draped with flags, poems and flowers. "They were on the front line. The enemy was right there."
Army veteran Jay Brunot, 67, and his wife, Jean, 66, a registered nurse, traveled to the site after attending a holiday parade in Latrobe, about 40 miles away.
"The whole day is supposed to be a recognition of those who died to protect us," Jay Brunot said. Flight 93 passengers, his wife added, "were just as important as the veterans were."
Other Sept. 11 victims were remembered in ceremonies around the nation.
About 150 residents gathered in a light rain on the town green in Burlington, Mass., to dedicate a memorial to three men with ties to the Boston suburb who were aboard American Airlines Flight 11 when it struck the World Trade Center.
"Evil tried to obliterate us, but it didn't. The World Trade Center may have been struck down, but we were not destroyed," said Cheryl McGuinness, whose husband, Thomas, was a co-pilot on the doomed flight.
The brick memorial honoring McGuinness, Jay Hayes and James Trentini bears a plaque that reads: "Always Flying High. September 11, 2001. Never to be Forgotten."
The attacks loomed large in more traditional Memorial Day celebrations, and helped draw larger-than-usual crowds to services and parades.
"I am happy to see that so many people came out," said Army veteran Artie Clay at a service Sunday at Lee Street National Cemetery in Danville, Va. "You have to think that we may be seeing more of these headstones with our troops in Afghanistan."
Peter Shoars, a retired Green Beret who lives in Spotsylvania, Va., said he senses a national pride that wasn't evident when he was serving in Vietnam.
"It's completely different," he said. "In our country, we've had a lot of calm Memorial Day weekends where we never even looked back. We need to honor our deceased veterans, all veterans, and now all people."
In Timonium, Md., six names of people killed in the attack on the Pentagon were added to Children of Liberty Memorial, which was dedicated in 1990 to Maryland military personnel killed by terrorists.
The name of Staff Sgt. Walter "Trae" Cohee of Mardela Springs, Md., also was added. Cohee was killed on Jan. 20 when the helicopter he was riding in crashed outside the Afghanistan capital of Kabul.
"I knew my son was going to be something special, but I never dreamed that he would receive this much attention," said his mother, Jeanne Cohee. People from various branches of the military came up to hug her.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2002/may/27/052702855.html
[Edited 1 times, lastly by KrissaTMC2 on 05-27-2002] |
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Anne
Joined: 04 Feb 2001
Posts: 123
Location: Napa, CA USA |
Mon May 27, 2002 9:26 pm
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Yes, my flag is out this weekend too. I am honoring those who have fought for our country. I will take it down again until Fourth of July.
I saw this weekend on PBS a great program showing artists who painting pictures of war during WWII, Viet Nam, and I am not sure Korean War. I wish the general public could view these war scenes and their viewpoints of war would change. The paintings are now archived by the military. |
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FLKook

Joined: 28 Apr 2001
Posts: 710
Location: East Central Florida |
Mon May 27, 2002 10:37 pm
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Thanks SoreThroat and Krissa for a great Memorial Day thread. I fly the flag everyday and have for years. It's seems to be fashionable now since 9/11 but to me that doesn't diminish one bit the sentiment of pride and honor it represents.
The perversion and erosion of our U.S. Constitution and it's accompanying ammendments is something never far from my mind. Keeping the flag flying serves as a daily reminder that the framer's set this government up as a constitutional republic and that is as it should be. |
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