For those who haven't read the recent news, the last surviving US WW I Veteran, Mr Frank Buckles, is part of a group lobbying Washington DC to have a WWI Memorial erected on the National Mall. While there is a monument tot hose who served and died in WW I, the Liberty Memorial, it is located in Kansas City Missouri. Just last year the US Senate declared the Museum at the Liberty Memorial the official national museum to honor WW I.
Now here is my personal thoughts on this matter. While there are memorials to WW II, Korea, and Vietnam on the National Mall, there is not one for WW I. Why not have one for WW I? And then there is the other issue at play here; the last surviving US WW I Veteran has ask for a Memorial to his comrades-in-arms and we need to have Senate Hearing to decide the issue.
Just build the thing already. After what this man gave to his country in not just one, but two world wars (he was taken as a prisoner of war by the Japanese in WW II and held for three years), there should only be two questions, what do you want and where do you want it?
As a veteran myself, and someone who has great respect for those who came before me, I feel a deep sense of sadness and, at the same time outrage that this is what we must go through to honor the heroes of our country. What a sad commentary on the state of our nation, when someone as distinguished as Mr Buckles must be paraded before the nation in such a fashion to simply pay respect to those who died to preserve not only our freedom, but the freedom of those around the world.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Dali Who?
While I understand the important role that China plays in the US Economic picture, especially in light of our current economic recession, I feel we place entirely too much importance on the issue. We worry entirely too much on what the Chinese people and more directly their government thinks of us. As a world superpower, dare I say the last true world superpower, we need to stand strong and boldly hold to our long established policies. So by now I am sure you are wondering where I am going with this, so let me explain.
Our President, and I call him that because whether we like him or not Barak Obama is our President. Our President chose to postpone his meeting with the Dali Lama, one of the worlds most respected religious leaders and advocate for peace, until after the President has met with the Chinese President in Beijing in November. While this meeting is a great step in the right direction for the US to take is strengthening our relationship with China, it should not affect the meeting with the Dali Lama. By postponing the meeting, President Obama has told China the he holds them in a higher regard then he does the people of Tibet, a message that is in direct contrast to the long-standing view the world has had of the US-Tibetan friendship.
We as a nation have long held to the ideal of independence to all who seek it, a policy that goes back to the very founding of our nation. Every war the US has been involved in has been to help secure the independence of a people from oppressors seeking to stifle their independence. The only exception to this is the war on terrorism in the Middle East. And even there we fought to free the people from oppressive leaders. Yet we now have a President and Administration that feels it should value the Chinese dollar more than Tibetan independence.
How can we claim to be the democratic leaders of the world, while we turn our backs on those who seek the very freedoms we hold so dear yet take for granted so often.
Our President, and I call him that because whether we like him or not Barak Obama is our President. Our President chose to postpone his meeting with the Dali Lama, one of the worlds most respected religious leaders and advocate for peace, until after the President has met with the Chinese President in Beijing in November. While this meeting is a great step in the right direction for the US to take is strengthening our relationship with China, it should not affect the meeting with the Dali Lama. By postponing the meeting, President Obama has told China the he holds them in a higher regard then he does the people of Tibet, a message that is in direct contrast to the long-standing view the world has had of the US-Tibetan friendship.
We as a nation have long held to the ideal of independence to all who seek it, a policy that goes back to the very founding of our nation. Every war the US has been involved in has been to help secure the independence of a people from oppressors seeking to stifle their independence. The only exception to this is the war on terrorism in the Middle East. And even there we fought to free the people from oppressive leaders. Yet we now have a President and Administration that feels it should value the Chinese dollar more than Tibetan independence.
How can we claim to be the democratic leaders of the world, while we turn our backs on those who seek the very freedoms we hold so dear yet take for granted so often.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Scottish Law
I would like to begin by pointing out that when people travel to foreign countries they are expected to follow the laws of that country. Here in the US we hold our foreign visitors to our laws just as we are held to the laws of their country when we travel there. With this established, I would like to next point out that in the US legal system people imprisoned for most crimes are eligible to receive parole and early release for things such as good behavior. For that matter there is a special group of people who deal with these cases.
Now to the issue at hand. Under Scottish law if you are terminally ill you can receive a compassionate release from prison. This law, very much like our own parole system, has recently taken center stage on the world scene. The Scots recently gave a compassionate release to Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the infamous Lockerbie Bomber.
While there are rumors that the release of al-Megrahi was connected to threats by the Libyan government to freeze British assets in it's oil rich country, the facts remain. Under Scottish Law al-Megrahi, recently diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, is eligible for compassionate release from prison. His release did not come until doctors declared that he has less then three months to live, a diagnosis that was confirmed by several physicians.
Much of the anger being expressed here in the US and around the world is at the fact that a know terrorist, sentenced to life in prison, has been releases and that he now poses a threat to the rest of the world. If al-Megrahi is to be any real threat to the world it is as an example. How long before other countries are pressured to strike deals with terrorist nations to protect financial interests.
For their sake I am hoping that the rumors of this release having anything to do with a $900 million development deal between BP and the Libyan government. BP and the rest of the world needs to stop and realise something, they need to realise that there are several other nations around the world with the same resources that would gladly have their business. Libya is not the only country in the world with oil and natural gas resources. I'm sure any one of the under developed countries of the world such as Venezuela or even Britain's powerful neighbor to the East Russia would gladly accept offers to help their countries failing economies and industries.
But the core problem as I see it is that we here in the US have for to long held to the idea that we know what is best for the world. This pompous attitude would be bad enough alone, but you often here people us rhetoric such as, "We are the last superpower so the world should do what we want."
We can not use our position as a superpower to dictate laws to sovereign nations, we must use our position to make sure that financial and political blackmail is not a tool used by other nations to get what they want. If the Scottish government was coerced into this release, the terrorist win they greatest victory, they managed to get another country to do their will, and divided the rest of the world at the same time.
Remember, united we stand, divided we fall.
Charlie
Now to the issue at hand. Under Scottish law if you are terminally ill you can receive a compassionate release from prison. This law, very much like our own parole system, has recently taken center stage on the world scene. The Scots recently gave a compassionate release to Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the infamous Lockerbie Bomber.
While there are rumors that the release of al-Megrahi was connected to threats by the Libyan government to freeze British assets in it's oil rich country, the facts remain. Under Scottish Law al-Megrahi, recently diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, is eligible for compassionate release from prison. His release did not come until doctors declared that he has less then three months to live, a diagnosis that was confirmed by several physicians.
Much of the anger being expressed here in the US and around the world is at the fact that a know terrorist, sentenced to life in prison, has been releases and that he now poses a threat to the rest of the world. If al-Megrahi is to be any real threat to the world it is as an example. How long before other countries are pressured to strike deals with terrorist nations to protect financial interests.
For their sake I am hoping that the rumors of this release having anything to do with a $900 million development deal between BP and the Libyan government. BP and the rest of the world needs to stop and realise something, they need to realise that there are several other nations around the world with the same resources that would gladly have their business. Libya is not the only country in the world with oil and natural gas resources. I'm sure any one of the under developed countries of the world such as Venezuela or even Britain's powerful neighbor to the East Russia would gladly accept offers to help their countries failing economies and industries.
But the core problem as I see it is that we here in the US have for to long held to the idea that we know what is best for the world. This pompous attitude would be bad enough alone, but you often here people us rhetoric such as, "We are the last superpower so the world should do what we want."
We can not use our position as a superpower to dictate laws to sovereign nations, we must use our position to make sure that financial and political blackmail is not a tool used by other nations to get what they want. If the Scottish government was coerced into this release, the terrorist win they greatest victory, they managed to get another country to do their will, and divided the rest of the world at the same time.
Remember, united we stand, divided we fall.
Charlie
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Welcome
Welcome to Veritas Vox Populi, for those of you who are a little rusty with your Latin that means get a dictionary and figure it out for yourself. Not everything in life is handed to you on a platter, some of it you have to work for yourself. If you haven't guessed by now, I intend to call 'em like I see 'em, and if you don't like that I would suggest you move on to somewhere a little more politcally correct.
For those still reading, I am a 35 yr old graduate of Lake Superior State University with a BS in History and Minors in English and Secondary Education. No this does not make me a know-it-all teacher, it makes me someone who has some idea of where society and civilization has came from and I realise where it is headed. I tried my hand at teaching and decided that, while I liked what I did and the kids I worked with, I couldn't stand parents or the rampent nepotism that infects our American educational systems. If you feel the "good 'ole boy" system of hiring and promoting is limited to the business world all you need to do is step through the doors of your local school and look around to see how many of those working there are related to another employee.
I am also a published author. I have written articles on the right to revolt and the true definition of evil. I feel that if you are unhappy with those who are in power over you, you have the right to stand up and say, "No more!"
This does not mean I am calling for and armed march on a capital anywhere in the US. It means that when we have our organized revolt, ie elections, don't vote for the same moran time after time. And if you decide to vote for the same idiots, sit down and shut up, you are more a part of the problem than you are the solution.
Much of what you read here will be me commenting on the news from around the world, as well as on occassion comments on events and activites here in my own home town. Nobody is safe, and no topic is taboo. I invite comment and look forward to hearing your ideas on what I have to say. Just be warned, if you comment like a moran, you could very well be the next topic I discuss.
Charlie
For those still reading, I am a 35 yr old graduate of Lake Superior State University with a BS in History and Minors in English and Secondary Education. No this does not make me a know-it-all teacher, it makes me someone who has some idea of where society and civilization has came from and I realise where it is headed. I tried my hand at teaching and decided that, while I liked what I did and the kids I worked with, I couldn't stand parents or the rampent nepotism that infects our American educational systems. If you feel the "good 'ole boy" system of hiring and promoting is limited to the business world all you need to do is step through the doors of your local school and look around to see how many of those working there are related to another employee.
I am also a published author. I have written articles on the right to revolt and the true definition of evil. I feel that if you are unhappy with those who are in power over you, you have the right to stand up and say, "No more!"
This does not mean I am calling for and armed march on a capital anywhere in the US. It means that when we have our organized revolt, ie elections, don't vote for the same moran time after time. And if you decide to vote for the same idiots, sit down and shut up, you are more a part of the problem than you are the solution.
Much of what you read here will be me commenting on the news from around the world, as well as on occassion comments on events and activites here in my own home town. Nobody is safe, and no topic is taboo. I invite comment and look forward to hearing your ideas on what I have to say. Just be warned, if you comment like a moran, you could very well be the next topic I discuss.
Charlie
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