Roberta
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Post by Roberta on Nov 18, 2012 12:22:05 GMT -8
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anni
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Post by anni on Jan 15, 2013 20:48:32 GMT -8
Suzy and I got to Griffith Park (right across from the Greek) just about 4:00 this afternoon. No parking in the lot...who cares? We just took the space recently vacated...walked across the street to the giant tour bus provided as a shuttle for all the Huell Howser fans gathered to wish him safe journey Home. Yes, it was kind of a memorial/sunset celebration of Huell Howser's life. City officials, co-workers, folks of all ages, all walks of life and every persuasion. Even though Huell had said he didn't want any fuss...no funeral, no memorial...if he could have seen all our shining faces wishing him God's Speed...he'd have that big old smile all over his face. Hell...even the LAPD sent a helicopter to circle the party...waving at us earthbound mortals. We Love You, Huell.
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Post by Nancy on Mar 22, 2013 8:57:36 GMT -8
Iraq War vet pens 'last letter' to Bush and Cheney .By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo! News | The Lookout – Wed, Mar 20, 2013.
An Iraq War veteran who joined the U.S. Army two days after 9/11 has written a powerful open letter to former President George W. Bush and ex-Vice President Dick Cheney accusing them of war crimes, "plunder" and "the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole." Tomas Young, who was shot and paralyzed during an insurgent attack in Sadr City in 2004, five days into his first deployment, penned the letter from his Kansas City, Mo., home, where he's under hospice care. "I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney," Young wrote in the letter published on Truthdig.com. "I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole." The 33-year-old, who was the subject of Phil Donahue's 2007 documentary "Body of War," continued:
I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Young believes he was injured fighting the wrong war:
I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire. "When Tomas Young saw President Bush on television speaking from the ruins of the Twin Towers, his life changed," his bio on the "Body of War" website reads. "As his basic training began at Ft. Hood, he assumed that he would be shipped off to Afghanistan where the terrorist camps were based, routing out Al Qaeda and Taliban warriors. But soon, Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq." In an interview with Truthdig.com, Young—who suffered an anoxic brain injury in 2008—said he had been contemplating "conventional" suicide, but decided to go on hospice care, "stop feeding and fade away." "This way, instead of committing the conventional suicide and I am out of the picture, people have a way to stop by or call and say their goodbyes," Young said. "I felt this was a fairer way to treat people than to just go out with a note."
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Post by Jeanne on Apr 27, 2013 20:18:56 GMT -8
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Roberta
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Post by Roberta on May 12, 2013 18:43:57 GMT -8
Basking in the warmth and full stomach of a lovely mother's day, enjoying my daughters' presence and call, and reminding them that Mother's Day wasn't always a Hallmark holiday:
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Roberta
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Post by Roberta on Jul 3, 2013 16:10:29 GMT -8
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Jul 22, 2013 23:00:19 GMT -8
This video posted on You Tube last Friday by the Bradley Manning Support Network -- starring Daniel Ellsberg and featuring Bradley's voice -- is the organization's best one so far, by far:
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Roberta
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Post by Roberta on Sept 16, 2013 9:15:12 GMT -8
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anni
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Post by anni on Sept 16, 2013 17:15:37 GMT -8
OMG...Way to be, Roberta! Perfect pitch (as in music; not baseball)!
I love your letter so much I'm going to cut and paste it below:
There, was that so hard?
Overnight the headline went from “U.S. Ready to Attack Syria” to “U.S., Russia Agree to Secure Syrian Chemical Weapons.”
Our fearless world leaders seem to have bumbled into this positive development. Picture the headlines if they actually tried.
During the saber-rattling, my realist world view guided me to scoff at the notion of a “limited strike” punishing Assad. He would be well protected, unlike his citizens. Ditto hurting his conscience or scaring him into better behavior. Please! He just gassed his own people and faces down Israel daily.
Here at home, President Obama revisiting middle school with his line-crossing made me cringe.
The bright spot was Secretary Kerry going from water-carrier to smarty-pants. He should keep extemporizing to come up with further doable, if admittedly difficult, diplomatic attacks on violence and injustice.
Brother Kerry, in 1971 you inspired the peace movement by sending your Vietnam hero's ribbons sailing back at the White House, vividly rejecting that pointless war. You asked a trenchant question that echoed in Iraq and saddens afresh about Afghanistan: “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”
Now you are “the Man,” man. Give peace a chance.
Roberta Medford Atheist Montrose
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