Because I didn't do any posting....
"Call for peace resounds on day to honor those killed and injured in wars" by Jeremy C. Fox | Globe Correspondent, May 28, 2013
The Memorial Day for Peace is intended to keep the focus on those directly affected by war, including civilians, said Pat Scanlon of Andover, the event’s coordinator and a Vietnam veteran. Raya Shandi,17, was one of two Iraqi refugees who spoke about the long war in their country and their new lives in the United States.
Shandi said in an interview that she left Iraq with her parents, two sisters, and two brothers in September 2009 and settled in Lowell. They fled after men killed her 6-year-old brother Dawood as retribution for work her father, a jeweler, had done for American soldiers.
Shandi, who will enter the University of Massachusetts Boston in the fall and hopes to become a doctor, said she considers the United States home now, but it was difficult at first to adjust to a new life and a new language. She still misses Iraq and her large extended family there, even as she is haunted by memories of violence.
Another survivor present was Kazue Campbell, 80, a longtime peace advocate who lived outside Hiroshima, Japan, when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city in 1945 to help end World War II....
Related: This Should Just About Do It on Japan
Like other speakers, Cole Harrison, head of Mass Peace Action, called for change, using the language of the Occupy Wall Street movement....
Uh-oh.
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"Obama offers reminder that Afghan war persists" by Sheryl Gay Stolberg | New York Times, May 28, 2013
WASHINGTON — President Obama paid homage to the nation’s military — especially troops serving in Afghanistan — on Monday, using his traditional Memorial Day address at Arlington National Cemetery to exhort Americans to honor their “sacred obligation” to veterans and to remind the country that “our nation is still at war.”
I didn't need that reminder.
Obama’s remarks, delivered under warm, sunny skies after he participated in a somber wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns, followed his address last week on counterterrorism policy, in which he said he hoped to move the nation off a war footing. On Monday, Obama made glancing reference to the policy speech he gave Thursday, in what seemed to be an effort to tamp down Republican criticism....
The fact is, he could do it himself. He is commander-in-chief. And this idea that politics prevents him, well, he has been given the second term Kennedy was not. So what if you are damned as a Muslim appeaser, sir. Kennedy didn't care, and neither should you. Call out the lies and the liars! Put your life on the line like the brave soldiers.
Visiting Arlington National Cemetery, on the rolling hills of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River from the capital, has been a Memorial Day ritual for many presidents. Obama described the cemetery as “a sacred place where we honor our fallen heroes,” contrasting it with the “city of monuments” across the river.
Related: A Trip Through Arlington
Who are the "terrorists" again?
In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined military leaders and others at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Manhattan. He later encouraged New Yorkers to celebrate the day and the good weather but also ‘‘remember the sacrifice that was made so that we could be here.’’
I wish the government would when it comes to aftercare benefits.
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Also see:
In Hyde Park, a reason to pause on Memorial Day
For Springfield Civil War hero, a long overdue memorial
