FlaNative's Blog

Watching the news this morning, I heard Heidi talk about those flooded out by rising waters of the Mississippi River wouLD rebuild, with Federal assistance!!!

How many times have you heard this??  The Mississppi floods its banks, people lose their homes, the gov't bails them out, and they REBUILD IN THE SAME PLACE!!!!

Seems it happens every 10 years or so.  Sorry, if you rebuild next to the Mississippi we (taxpayers) should not bail you out time and again!!  Isn't that what flood insurance is for??

OK, I've never been accused of being the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I have a little bit of sense.  Does Obama support the decision or not???

I thought "Wild" Bill was bad about leading by opinion poll, but he seems to have had nothing compared to Obama!!

Obama said he has "always believed that the 2nd Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms, but I also identify with the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through common-sense, effective safety measures."

The latest comments by Imus to come under scrutiny were aired on Monday's broadcast. During a conversation about Jones' run-ins with the law, Imus asked, "What color is he?" Sports announcer Warner Wolf said Jones -- formerly known as Pacman -- is "African-American." Imus responded: "There you go. Now we know."

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail
;jsessionid=300945ADC3507C6486225996A0A16D6B?contentId=
6834881&version=3&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1
.1.1&sflg=1

The newest quartley report is out on Iraq today....

Why is it, with the surge working, continued improvements in Iraq, the Obama still wants out immediately???   There is still work to do, granted, but to cut, run and surrender when we are THIS CLOSE is just stupid!!!

Will he go to each family who lost a loved one there and say "your son died in vain, too bad"????

The report, required by Congress, says violence in Iraq has fallen to its lowest level in four years, with some categories down as much as 80 percent. Still, there are dozens of attacks every day, most of them in Baghdad and three northern provinces, with about 40 large-scale attacks in the month of May.

Admiral Mike Mullen (file photo)

The report praises the Iraqi government for progress in developing and using its security forces against both Sunni and Shiite extremists, and for progress on some political issues. But the report also calls the gains "fragile, reversible and uneven." That sentiment was echoed Monday by the top U.S. military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen.

"Iraq's in a much better place than it was a year ago, across the board - politically, economically and from a security standpoint," said Admiral Mullen. "I see that when I visit there, and clearly just to talk to the brigades who have recently returned, they confirm that. But we're not at the sustainable point yet. We're not at the irreversible point yet."

The Pentagon's quarterly Iraq report says a major factor in the progress has been the willingness of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to reject extremism and begin to work with the government. The trend started among Sunnis in al-Anbar Province, but the report says it has now spread to Shiites in many parts of the country. The report says there are now more than 100,000 men in so-called 'Sons of Iraq' groups, working with the Iraqi police and army to maintain order and keep insurgents and terrorists out of local areas.

According to the report, Iran continues "to fund, train, arm and guide" Shiite militias, in spite of promises to stop. The report says, during recent operations in Basra, Iraqi security forces found caches of weapons that were manufactured in Iran this year.

The report also points to improvements in the capacity of the Iraqi army and police, but says the progress varies from place to place. On Monday, the Number Two U.S. commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Lloyd Austin, said the Iraqis still need to be backed up by U.S. forces, but he believes U.S. and Iraqi troops can continue to make security gains, even though U.S. troop levels are being reduced by about 20,000.

"We have, over the last several months, been engaged in some pretty significant activity from time to time," said General Austin. "As we faced al-Qaida in the north, we also faced a pretty significant fight against JAM [Jesh al-Mahdi, Mahdi Army] Special Groups criminals in the areas of Basra and Sadr City. And we did all that while our footprint was getting smaller. But I think the results speak for themselves. We've been fairly effective."

http://voanews.com/english/2008-06-23-voa62.cfm

OK...I listened to Jim this morning... 50-60% chance of rain this afternoon/early evening!!  Thundershowers.  Downpour.  Hunker Down!!

So, I left the Harley (which I washed this morning) covered in the garage, and drove my gas guzzeling pickup truck from Deltona to Orlando.  I now sit at my desk, looking out the window at clear, sunny skies.  I check the Fox 35 weather radar...not a drop of rain around!!

So, I think it's only fair that Jim pay me for my gas for today...round trip, Deltona to Orlando, Dodge full size pick up,  vs the fuel saving Harley.

So, difference is gas used, pain and suffering not being able to ride the bike...I think $100 bucks will do it.  Need my address????    (I'll settle for a gift certificate to Ruth Chris for 2)  

:)

ps...can I ride tomorrow?????

This would be REALLY funny if not so true....

OLD VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.  The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY:  Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.  CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, "It's Not Easy Being Green."

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome."  Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.  Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.  Hillary gets her former employer, the Rose Law Firm, to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a jury comprised of single-parent welfare recipients.  The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow.  The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY:  Be careful how you vote.

Some interesting stuff.  Delegate vote fixing?  In fighting?  What else is there??

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008
/06/obama-wont-like.html

It is not going to be a good day for Barack Obama's Florida finance chairman Kirk Wagar.

Late Thursday, Florida DNC member Jon Ausman released excerpts from a series of e-mail exchanges in which Wagar, a Miami lawyer, criticizes U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and rips into Ausman with the kind of language we'd never get into the newspaper.

"You (expletive) us," a June 6 note from Wagar to Ausman says. "We are dealing with it. You need to accept the fact that you (expletive) us."

Another note reads: "If 30 people are all that are (expletive) off ... we have done pretty well."

About Nelson, Wagar wrote, "I am getting very sick of Nelson making a bad situation worse" and "Let me be clear as a bell: As of right now, you (Ausman) have made a difficult situation worse. We have been put in a bad situation by Leonard (Joseph) and Nelson and you have just thrown your lot in with them."

Leonard Joseph is the executive director of the Florida Democratic Party.

The dispute centers on how delegates to the Democratic National Convention will be selected. Ausman has said he is concerned that the Obama campaign will try to remove some delegates -- as many as 30 -- and replace them with people who have been more supportive of the Illinois senator.

Ausman said that dismissing some delegates in favor of handpicked supporters would hurt party unity and make it harder for Democrats of different stripes to rally around the presumed nominee.

Ausman is the Tallahassee Democrat who drew national attention with his efforts to get Florida's representatives to the Democratic convention reinstated. The DNC had stripped the state of those delegates as a punishment for violating party primary rules. During his campaign, Ausman kept in constant touch with the media, e-mailing them with updates on his progress.

After an agreement was reached on how to seat the delegates -- each one would get half a vote -- Ausman and Wagar began corresponding over who would actually be seated. Ausman, in the message sent late Thursday to reporters, suggests Wagar became hostile.

Wagar, in an apology/explanation he prepared said he was "sorry" for and "embarassed" by the language and tone he used. But he said Ausman had become difficult to work with.

"At every turn, Jon Ausman demanded his pound of flesh," Wagar's e-mail said. "This was about Jon's ego and his view that control over party rules was his only power."

With respect to Nelson, Wagar said that he and the senator also disagreed over the process for selecting the delegates. But Wagar insisted that he didn't "malign (Nelson) in private nor in the excerpts Jon blasted out." He accused Ausman of using "out of context snippets" from what were admittedly "sometimes heated arguments."

The details of the dispute will matter only to political wonks, but its disclosure makes for bad public relations. The Obama campaign desperately wants to win Florida, but it now may first have to explain why its finance chief here is dissing a sitting Democratic senator and dropping the "F-bomb" on other party officials.

Ausman's e-mail is included below followed by Wagar's response.

From: Kirk Wagar
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 12:41 AM
To: Kirk W.B. Wagar
Subject: Jon Ausman's email

Friends and fellow Democrats

I don’t know if you have received Florida DNC member Jon Ausman’s email about me yet but I assume you will.  He has chosen to subject folks to out of context snippets from some ongoing and sometimes heated arguments we have had over the course of this campaign.  I apologize for the profanity that you were subjected too.  it is a vice of mine that I try to minimize but seems to rear it’s head with more frequency when I deal with Jon.

I have been told over the years that I should ignore Jon and never engage with him, even when I agree with him, because in the end, it is all about Jon.  That seems to be the case.  I will not go chapter and verse through the substance of his email but I will provide my context for anything that I think might be misconstrued.

Number 1, when I was referring to making a difficult situation worse, I was specifically talking about the fact that we asked that at the very least, the PLEO and AT Large Delegates not be selected until after the DNC Rules and By Laws Committee ruled.  I asked both Leonard Joseph and Senator Nelson’s office to support waiting and they made a decision to go forward for tactical reasons.  I disagreed with it but they were perfectly entitled to make that decision and I don’t fault them for it.  I don’t think it is debatable that it made the delegate situation harder to deal with after the fact given that the Obama campaign did not participate in the elections, but it is not like anyone died.  It was and is simply a situation that has to be dealt with.  Both Leonard and Senator Nelson’s office know that I wanted a different outcome and I did not malign them in private nor in the excerpts Jon blasted out.  I have worked with Leonard for years, long before he came to Florida, and I have worked very hard for and with Senator Nelson.  On this issue we disagreed and despite Jon’s effort to twist it into something more, it isn’t.

Number 2, I fundamentally believe that the Obama campaign should be able to send the delegates that most deserve it to the convention and because that the campaign did not participate in the process and strike anyone, people who knew the system were able to get a slate passed of people that were important to them and their local politics.  There is nothing untoward about those individuals putting forth a slate in the absence of the Obama campaign participating.  I do not think it is appropriate that that slate stands unchallenged now that the DNC RBC has ruled on Jon’s appeal, but that is MY opinion, not of the campaign.  I have great respect for both Dianne Glasser and Bret Berlin and consider Bret a good friend.  I would have done exactly what they did.  My point has always been that I personally don’t think that it should be binding on a campaign that did not participate and now that there is an opportunity to at least try to fix the situation, we should.

Number 3, I have no idea what he is talking about with regards to Gerry McEntee because I would have never in a million years thought he would be having conversations with Jon Ausman. 

For the past 2 weeks, I have poured over the lists of Obama delegates, tried to find every avenue to have everyone who should be a delegate either be one or get similar credentials, talked to numerous party leaders to try to find a way to make sure everyone or almost everyone would end this final process of the primary pleased and united.  At every turn Jon Ausman demanded his pound of flesh.  The mistake I made, in addition to language that I am extremely embarrassed about circulating to good Democrats around the state, was trying to rationally discuss alternatives with Jon.  This was about Jon’s ego and his view that control over party rules was his only power.

I am sorry you were brought into this.  I am sorry that I used unprofessional language with Jon, despite it being a two way street in the back and forth, but most importantly, I am sorry that we cannot do anything in a simple and succinct manner so we can win this state in November for Barack Obama.

I have no idea who Jon sent this to so if someone forwards you something with a “What the heck is this” email, please feel free to forward my response.

Kirk Wagar

If 30 people (after we purge them) are all that are (expletive) off…we have   done pretty well.

Kirk Wager, 6 June 2008 at 7:17 PM

…you (Jon Ausman) really convinced yourself that you are doing anything   other than fighting for political backroom deals?

Kirk Wagar, 12 June 2008, 7:27 PM

That would suck. Tell him   (AFSCME International President Gerald McEntee) we will remember.

Kirk Wager, 3 June 2008, 9:45 AM

I am getting very sick of (Senator) Nelson making a bad situation   worse.

Kirk Wager, 1 May 2008, 4:33 PM

So you are comfortable with the 4 people, for example, that Dianne   (Glasser) negotiated on (Bret) Berlin's slate that have done nothing for   Barack and no one in Broward knows?  Come on!!!

Kirk Wager, 6 June 2008, 8:14 AM

It would be my suggestion the Obama Florida Finance Chair publicly apologize to Senator Bill Nelson, AFSCME International President Gerald McEntee, Florida Democratic Party First Vice-Chair Diane Glasser and Florida Democratic Party Executive Director Leonard Joseph.

Rather then criticizing others in a most negative way it might be more helpful for Senator Obama if you praise those who can make a contribution to the effort to defeat Bush's candidate to carry on his failed policies.  Praise, oddly enough, often encourages people to work harder.

If you have any questions, please either call me at ... or write me at ...

With respect, I am,

Jon M. Ausman, Member

An 82 yr old Deltona man shot and killed his 72 yr old wife because she was in constant pain and declining health from a colon operation. 

It's OK to take the life of an unborn child for convience, but murder when a loved one has no quality of life, is elderly and in constant pain.

Is this the ultimate display of love or murder?  If your spouse was in constant pain and asked you to end their life, would you?  Should we have a law allowing doctors to help you end your life in that situation?  Was Dr "K" right?

What do you think????

With his wife in declining health since a colon operation in December, an 82-year-old man told Volusia County sheriff's investigators he decided to put an end to her pain Thursday morning when he retrieved a handgun that family members thought was hidden from him and shot her once in the head as she slept.

Robert Benjo faces a charge of second-degree murder with a firearm in the shooting of Peggy Benjo, 72, sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said. He was being held without bail at the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach.

Deputies were called to the home in the 1600 block of Rim Avenue about 10:15 a.m. by a relative who received a call from Robert Benjo, Davidson said.

Deputies arrived within three minutes, and a sheriff's dispatcher called the man and persuaded him to walk outside, where he was detained, Davidson said. Deputies went inside long enough to determine that the woman was dead and then left the home and waited for investigators to obtain a search warrant so crime-scene technicians could search for evidence, he said.

Armed with a search warrant, they re-entered the house about 2:30 p.m. and found a .22-caliber handgun they think was used to kill the woman, Davidson said.

Benjo told investigators his wife had been hospitalized during the past week.

He told investigators both had trouble falling asleep Wednesday night "and that she told him that she wanted her pain to end and that she no longer had the will to live," Davidson said.

The couple finally drifted off to sleep, but when he awoke Thursday morning, Benjo told investigators, he decided to shoot his wife.

Family members said Robert Benjo was depressed when they visited the home Wednesday and he said he felt like shooting himself, Davidson said.

Although they knew there was a gun in the house, "they thought it was hidden where he couldn't find it," Davidson said.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/crime/orl
-mercy0608jun06,0,5868486.story

I had the opportunity to see him perform a few years ago a Bike Week...he still had it!!!  One of the greats and founders of Rock & Roll, he will be missed by those of us that loved his music.

Rest in peace Bo.

Bo Diddley, a founding father of rock 'n' roll whose distinctive "shave and a haircut, two bits" rhythm and innovative guitar effects inspired legions of other musicians, died Monday after months of ill health. He was 79.

Diddley died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla., spokeswoman Susan Clary said. He had suffered a heart attack in August, three months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa. Doctors said the stroke affected his ability to speak, and he had returned to Florida to continue rehabilitation.

The legendary singer and performer, known for his homemade square guitar, dark glasses and black hat, was an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, had a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, and received a lifetime achievement award in 1999 at the Grammy Awards. In recent years he also played for the elder President Bush and President Clinton.

Diddley appreciated the honors he received, "but it didn't put no figures in my checkbook."

"If you ain't got no money, ain't nobody calls you honey," he quipped.

The name Bo Diddley came from other youngsters when he was growing up in Chicago, he said in a 1999 interview.

"I don't know where the kids got it, but the kids in grammar school gave me that name," he said, adding that he liked it so it became his stage name. Other times, he gave somewhat differing stories on where he got the name. Some experts believe a possible source for the name is a one-string instrument used in traditional blues music called a diddley bow.

His first single, "Bo Diddley," introduced record buyers in 1955 to his signature rhythm: bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp, often summarized as "shave and a haircut, two bits." The B side, "I'm a Man," with its slightly humorous take on macho pride, also became a rock standard.

The company that issued his early songs was Chess-Checkers records, the storied Chicago-based labels that also recorded Chuck Berry and other stars.

Howard Kramer, assistant curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, said in 2006 that Diddley's Chess recordings "stand among the best singular recordings of the 20th Century."

Diddley's other major songs included, "Say Man," "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover," "Shave and a Haircut," "Uncle John," "Who Do You Love?" and "The Mule."

Diddley's influence was felt on both sides of the Atlantic. Buddy Holly borrowed the bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp rhythm for his song "Not Fade Away."

The Rolling Stones' bluesy remake of that Holly song gave them their first chart single in the United States, in 1964. The following year, another British band, the Yardbirds, had a Top 20 hit in the United States with their version of "I'm a Man."

Diddley was also one of the pioneers of the electric guitar, adding reverb and tremelo effects. He even rigged some of his guitars himself.

"He treats it like it was a drum, very rhythmic," E. Michael Harrington, professor of music theory and composition at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., said in 2006.

Many other artists, including the Who, Bruce Springsteen, George Michael and Elvis Costello copied aspects of Diddley's style.

Growing up, Diddley said he had no musical idols, and he wasn't entirely pleased that others drew on his innovations. "I don't like to copy anybody. Everybody tries to do what I do, update it," he said. "I don't have any idols I copied after."

"They copied everything I did, upgraded it, messed it up. It seems to me that nobody can come up with their own thing, they have to put a little bit of Bo Diddley there," he said.

Despite his success, Diddley claimed he only received a small portion of the money he made during his career. Partly as a result, he continued to tour and record music until his stroke. Between tours, he made his home near Gainesville in north Florida.

"Seventy ain't nothing but a damn number," he told The Associated Press in 1999. "I'm writing and creating new stuff and putting together new different things. Trying to stay out there and roll with the punches. I ain't quit yet."

Diddley, like other artists of his generations, was paid a flat fee for his recordings and said he received no royalty payments on record sales. He also said he was never paid for many of his performances.

"I am owed. I've never got paid," he said. "A dude with a pencil is worse than a cat with a machine gun." In the early 1950s, Diddley said, disc jockeys called his type of music, "Jungle Music." It was Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed who is credited with inventing the term "rock 'n' roll."

Diddley said Freed was talking about him, when he introduced him, saying, "Here is a man with an original sound, who is going to rock and roll you right out of your seat."

Diddley won attention from a new generation in 1989 when he took part in the "Bo Knows" ad campaign for Nike, built around football and baseball star Bo Jackson. Commenting on Jackson's guitar skills, Bo Diddley turned to the camera and said, "He don't know Diddley."

"I never could figure out what it had to do with shoes, but it worked," Diddley said. "I got into a lot of new front rooms on the tube."

Born as Ellas Bates on Dec. 30, 1928, in McComb, Miss., Diddley was later adopted by his mother's cousin and took on the name Ellis McDaniel, which his wife always called him.

When he was 5, his family moved to Chicago, where he learned the violin at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He learned guitar at age 10 and entertained passers-by on street corners.

By his early teens, Diddley was playing Chicago's Maxwell Street.

"I came out of school and made something out of myself. I am known all over the globe, all over the world. There are guys who have done a lot of things that don't have the same impact that I had," he said.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/music/
orl-bk-bo-diddley-dead-06022008,0,3137748.story

I came to work today to find that a good friend and coworker was killed last night on I-4 riding his motorcycle home.  From what I understand, he was rear-ended by a car that didn't see him.

Every time I see "cagers" driving while talking on the phone, eating, turning to talk with passengers,  I wonder how long it will be before they hit someone because something was more important to them then driving.  I'm not saying that happened in this situation, but it happens all too often.  If your distracted only a few seconds on I-4, your vehicle has probably travelled several hundred yards...a lot can happen in that distance.

I'll miss Brain.  He was always willing to help out a co-worker.  I know when I had an assignment for him, I knew it would be accomplished.  He would never complain, and the first to ask "what do you need"?

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, when you think you have to make that call on the phone while driving, or eat that sandwich, or anything else that can distract you, IS IT WORTH SOMEONES LIFE??????

It's about time deadbeat dads (and moms) got serious JAIL TIME   I know, you can't get child support if the bum isn't working, but maybe, just maybe, if they get a few YEARS they will decide the need to start paying!!!   They should also crack down on employers paying deadbeats under the table so they don't have to pay support!!!!

Should more judges send deadbeat parents to jail????

An Altamonte Springs man who owes nearly $700,000 in child support will spend the next two years in prison, an Osceola County judge decided Tuesday.

Robert Abraham, 53, pleaded guilty in March to failing to pay support for his youngest child. In addition to prison, Circuit Judge Scott Polodna sentenced Abraham to two years of house arrest followed by one year of supervised probation, the State Attorney's Office said.

Abraham's ex-wife, Sandra Pinkham, 54, has doggedly pursued Abraham for support for their three children -- now in their 20s -- since they were divorced nearly 15 years ago. On Tuesday, she said she filed a criminal complaint after years of coming up empty in civil court.

"They [the children] weren't just robbed of money," Pinkham said. "They were robbed of a father. They were robbed of support in every sense of the word."

For several years after her divorce, Pinkham and her children lived with friends and family, were briefly on public assistance and were forced to use a food pantry to make ends meet, she said.

Meanwhile, Abraham, who is in the auto-sales business, was living with his second wife in the country-club community of Heathrow in Seminole County. The couple, who have a daughter, have since divorced.

Abraham was in custody late Tuesday. His public defender could not be reached for comment.

During the court hearing in Kissimmee, the judge also ordered Abraham to pay Pinkham the child support he owes at $1,000 a month, starting when he gets out of prison. He could not be prosecuted criminally for failing to pay support for the two older children because the statute of limitations ran out, officials said. That doesn't necessarily absolve him of the civil debt.

Abraham's case is the only one prosecuted for criminal nonsupport in recent years in Orange and Osceola counties, said State Attorney's Office spokeswoman Danielle Tavernier. The charge is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison, she said.

Pinkham told an Osceola deputy in July that she had not received child-support payments from Abraham since 1993. She took him to court several times, but he still owed $651,716.40, she said.

Since 1998, Abraham has been an inmate in the Osceola County Jail on five occasions, serving a total of seven months. He was held for 27 days in 1998 for contempt of court and since 2002 has been jailed briefly for failing to pay child support.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/
orl-child2108may21,0,1023489.story

Memorial Day is coming up, and often the media, especially the weather guys, tell us  it means summer is here!!!  That may be true, but how many of us remember and think of the real meaning of the day, take a moment and be thankful that this nation has always been fortunate enough to have brave men and women willing to sacrafice their lives so we can live in freedom.

By all means enjoy the day off (if you get it), but also, please take a moment to teach your children the true meaning of the day.  If you are at the store, maybe donate a buck or two to the local VFW/American Legion that may be out front with their red poppy, a tradition started in 1915 by Moina Michael .  You may even want to attend some Memorial Day events in your area.

GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS....

IT'S ONLY THE LAND OF THE FREE BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE...

In Flanders Fields
John McCrae, 1915.

 In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication "To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead" (Source: Duke University's Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920). While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it's difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860's tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.

General John A. Logan
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-B8172- 6403 DLC (b&w film neg.)] Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 - 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.

In 1915, inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields," Moina Michael replied with her own poem:

She then conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need. Later a Madam Guerin from France was visiting the United States and learned of this new custom started by Ms.Michael and when she returned to France, made artificial red poppies to raise money for war orphaned children and widowed women. This tradition spread to other countries. In 1921, the Franco-American Children's League sold poppies nationally to benefit war orphans of France and Belgium. The League disbanded a year later and Madam Guerin approached the VFW for help. Shortly before Memorial Day in 1922 the VFW became the first veterans' organization to nationally sell poppies. Two years later their "Buddy" Poppy program was selling artificial poppies made by disabled veterans. In 1948 the US Post Office honored Ms Michael for her role in founding the National Poppy movement by issuing a red 3 cent postage stamp with her likeness on it.

Traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country.

There are a few notable exceptions. Since the late 50's on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3d U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery. They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing. In 1951, the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of St. Louis began placing flags on the 150,000 graves at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery as an annual Good Turn, a practice that continues to this day. More recently, beginning in 1998, on the Saturday before the observed day for Memorial Day, the Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts place a candle at each of approximately 15,300 grave sites of soldiers buried at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park on Marye's Heights (the Luminaria Program). And in 2004, Washington D.C. held its first Memorial Day parade in over 60 years.

To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the "National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans "To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to 'Taps."

The Moment of Remembrance is a step in the right direction to returning the meaning back to the day. What is needed is a full return to the original day of observance. Set aside one day out of the year for the nation to get together to remember, reflect and honor those who have given their all in service to their country.

But what may be needed to return the solemn, and even sacred, spirit back to Memorial Day is for a return to its traditional day of observance. Many feel that when Congress made the day into a three-day weekend in with the National Holiday Act of 1971, it made it all the easier for people to be distracted from the spirit and meaning of the day. As the VFW stated in its 2002 Memorial Day address: "Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day."

On January 19, 1999 Senator Inouye introduced bill S 189 to the Senate which proposes to restore the traditional day of observance of Memorial Day back to May 30th instead of "the last Monday in May". On April 19, 1999 Representative Gibbons introduced the bill to the House (H.R. 1474). The bills were referred the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Government Reform.

To date, there has been no further developments on the bill. 

http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html>

Heck, I've known that for years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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ld/la-na-kennedy21-2008may21,0,7987520.story