Hermann Park, Houston, yesterday.
Barbara Radnofsky:
I want to express my sincere thanks to our service members and their families for their patriotic military service to our great Country. I ask that we keep our thoughts and prayers for the families of our fallen service members in all wars and the service members that died during peace time service. We must continue to remember this sacrifice on Memorial Day and throughout the year.
Chris Bell's blog (Jason Stanford):
Memorial Day is one holiday we all wish we didn't have to celebrate, and our hearts go out to everyone who has lost a friend or loved on in combat. There is not much more to say about that.
But there is a lot more to do. Texas has approximately 4,000 members of the National Guard currently on active duty in combat zones, and they are eligible for $250,000 life insurance policies with really low, $16.25 a month, premiums. On Veterans' Day, Chris said that as Governor, he would have the state pay these premiums to provide a little financial security.
When Chris' idea came out, Rick Perry's campaign called it "interesting," but not so interesting, it seems, to do anything about this. On Memorial Day, perhaps moreso than on any other day, we realize that this is an important priority and pray that no one would ever need to cash in any of these policies.
David Van Os:
My father and mother named me in memory of an uncle I never knew, my father’s older brother David, a naval fighter pilot in the Pacific theatre who did not return from his last mission and of whom it is said no trace was ever found. On the occasion of Memorial Day it is impossible for me not to think of this and of the similar sacrifices that have been made by so many Americans and their families in defense of the dream.
Over the approximately 231 years since the day the embattled colonists fired the shots heard ‘round the world at Lexington and Concord, a long line of courageous Americans and their families have offered themselves willingly to sacrifice everything they had in order to defend the dream of a place where tyranny is unknown and the people govern themselves. All of us living today owe more than words can ever express to every one of them for what they did.
On this occasion of Memorial Day 2006, something else must be said, grim though it is to have to say it. For the last 5 ½ years the chief executive of the United States of America and his entourage of sycophants have brazenly declared themselves by word and deed to be contemptuous of the Constitution and above the rule of law. In so doing they have continually shown themselves to be unworthy of every American who has sacrificed himself to defend the dream in every conflict since the courageous defenders of Lexington Green stood firm against Imperial Redcoat regiments.
The uncle I never knew did not pay the ultimate price in order for the likes of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Alberto Gonzales to trample all over the American dream that he perished to defend. Every one of the honored dead who has made the ultimate sacrifice down through the years of our nation’s history deserves better than for the dream they defended to be dishonored by an American regime that scorns the very Constitution they were sworn to defend. My fellow Americans and Texans, we owe it to ourselves, our legacy, and our posterity to flood our polling places this November and bring this dishonor to an end.
