Letters

Empower and honor our Constitution

    As we honor and empower our wounded warriors, constituents owe it to them to honor and empower our wounded constitution.

    We should never assume that all elected officials are vigilant in empowering and honoring our constitution.

    As it is the duty of soldiers to serve and protect our freedom, so it should be the duty of constituents to purge elected officials straying from the constitution for their own personal empowerment.

    Each and every one of us should seek the call to civic duty in the same way our veterans are called to serve our country for the love of country. 

    Non involvement is akin to playing Russian roulette.  Leaving it to career politicians who stray from the constitution to fix the woes of our time should never be acceptable.

    It is paramount that constituents clean house and vote for Real Change in the 5th District.

    Our great nation is at a tipping point as the constitution is licking its wounds. Come out of slumber and recognize an unrecognizable western hemisphere.

Carmel Vaden

Huddleston

Reconsider Stalin bust

    Bedford, Va., has a unique place in history. 

    Despite many obstacles an impressive and inspiring memorial has been built to the events of D-Day and the sacrifices made in the Normandy invasion.  To add busts of Stalin and Chiang Kai-shek to this memorial, allies in World War II, yes, but not participants in D-Day, when many other participating nations are left out is a mistake.  It seems that some are over-reaching the memorial’s original purpose by trying to turn this into a World War II memorial. 

    This mission creep threatens to undermine what has been brilliantly achieved.  With the U.S. Park Service considering taking over the operation of the memorial, this controversy and change in purpose could cause them to lose interest.  Please reconsider.

 

Phyllis W. Conrad

Moneta

Disgust of

Stalin bust

    The Organization for the Defense of Four Freedoms for Ukraine (ODFFU), whose National Executive Board is based in New York, N.Y., expresses its disgust and condemnation of the inclusion of a bust of Soviet leader Josef Stalin, whose reign in The Kremlin contributed to the deaths of untold millions of innocent Ukrainian and other men, women and children, in the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford.

    The ODFFU, as well as the entire Ukrainian American community, including veterans and non-veterans, urge Capitol Hill to speak out against this sacrilegious decision.

    Displaying Stalin’s bust at Bedford’s memorial is unacceptable to Ukrainian Americans across the United States, many of whom are members of the ODFFU. Additionally, we have learned that Polish Americans are also appalled by this plan.

    The enormity of crimes committed at Stalin’s orders is well documented and should not earn his image a place in the memorial. History has recorded that among the crimes against humanity that he committed are:

    • The genocide of 10 million Ukrainians during the Famine/Genocide of 1932/33 in Ukraine;

    • The millions more that died or were thrown into concentration camps during the Great Terror that followed the Famine Genocide;

    • The millions of innocents that were executed, used as cannon fodder or sent to concentration camps on his orders during WWII;

    • The millions more who died after the war either by starvation, execution or in the Gulag.

    When taken as a whole, the evil that was Stalin cannot be denied. This is the real legacy of Stalin. The Ukrainian Famine/Genocide alone should preclude any such honor.

    The immorality of glorifying Stalin will cast a pall on the image of the United States in then eyes of the European and Asian nations that faced Stalin’s onslaught and among its own citizens especially those who trace their heritage to those parts of the world.

    To those who say it is not glorifying Stalin but to acknowledge that he was an ally, does not serve objectivity or historical accuracy and justice. By putting his statue next to Roosevelt and Churchill it, necessarily, elevates the stature the greatest mass murderer in the history of humanity and completely misrepresents Stalin’s true legacy. Stalin initiated WWII by signing with Hitler the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact to divide Europe. The two tyrants, one already guilty of genocide and the second, who was about to carry out the Holocaust, should more appropriately be displayed together with Mao Zedong, mass murderer of his own Chinese countrymen, rather than with Roosevelt and Churchill.

    Stalin’s bust at this or any other memorial in the U.S. is unacceptable. Ukrainian Americans hope and trust that their elected officials will be in the lead in expressing the indignation of the U.S. Congress by presenting a bill to prevent the statue from ever being constructed and displayed in the United States.

Michael Koziupa

President of ODFFU

Angels in the ambulance

 

    Recently we had the misfortune of being involved in an auto accident that resulted in our being transported by ambulance to the Bedford Memorial Hospital by one of the volunteer crews of the Montvale Rescue Squad.  From the moment that they arrived on the scene of the accident, the care that they provided to us was in every way kind and professional.  So much so, in fact, that during the trip to the hospital, we got the feeling that we were in the presence of angels in that ambulance.

    The names of those crew members are listed as follows:  Vicki Elmore, Amy McRoberts, Don Farley, Adrian Farley and Tina Cash.

    To these EMT volunteers we send our sincere thanks and love.  This troubled world is made to be a better place because of people like them.

Willie and Jean Gray

Bedford

No free lunch

    There’s no such thing as a free lunch.  Right?  So how does it make sense that medical coverage can be extended to an additional 43 million people, allow everyone who is already insured  to keep their current plan, have the cost go down and the quality of care remain the same? 

    It doesn’t, yet that’s what we were told by the Obama administration and Congressman Perriello, isn’t it?  How could they not know that’s just pie in the sky?  Maybe they did. 

    We’re learning more every day, as the true cost of Health Care Reform is revealed, that the costs were initially grossly under-estimated. 

    It’s also being made clear that the promise of being able to keep your current insurance plan will not be the reality.  Government Actuaries report that about 14 million people will be forced into the new government-sponsored exchanges and 15 percent of seniors will be forced out of Medicare Advantage.

    Congressman Perriello’s Yes vote on this bill - even if he hadn’t voted Yes on Cap and Trade and Yes on the Stimulus Bill – should be enough to convince voters in the 5th District that we need to elect Robert Hurt in November.

Marilyn Osborne-Bach

Huddleston

Where is

the evidence?

    There is a court case going on in Connecticut that should interest Constitutional Minutemen throughout the nation.

    It’s the decision by Judge Janet Hall stating the Enfield Schools are linked to a church, the First Cathedral. How? Where is the evidence?

    The First Amendment suit was brought by the ACLU and Americans United on behalf of two high school students and parents. So it must be the decision by the modern court: “separation of church and state.” Viewing all the TV and newspaper accounts of this story, I saw nothing that violated the Founding Fathers founding documents, especially the First Amendment. Judge Hall visited the First Cathedral where she saw numerous symbols, sayings and artifacts. And so? Each citizen young or old have rights of individual choice, to choose.

    To one a Star of David in a cemetery means everything; to another equality is appreciated but the deceased being visited has a cross on his grave. So, the church has symbols. Citizens have rights to choose. Think for a moment. If the Star of David or Crosses in a cemetery are offensive to the eye, why not take the U.S. government to court to have all crosses and/or Star of Davids removed from all military cemeteries nationwide? Let’s not forget the Crosses in Normandy, France. Private cemeteries would follow suit. Judge Hall, please explain how a Cross inside or outside a church is offensive to a person?

    How did our Founding Fathers obey the law of the First Amendment? Thomas Jefferson in Albemarle County wrote that churches were not yet built so the courthouse became Sunday Services where the different religions took turns and all the parishioners were happy. On Monday Jefferson said it was a courthouse again.

    In Washington, Jefferson stayed at a boarding house. On Sunday he walked to the Capitol Rotunda for church service. For more umph in the music he had the Marine Corps Band come and play on Sundays. Jefferson was also Superintendent of Schools. He had the children read the Bible. This was to enforce the Founding Fathers instruction lessons upon their creation of public schools. It was, “the Censures of Law and the denunciations of religion against immorality and crime.” This resulted in homes unlocked, open barns, and no need for policemen.

    The instruction was still going strong in the 1930s – ‘40s when cars were parked for shopping with cars open and keys in the ignition. No cars were stolen. Where? New York City. Jefferson also wrote that if the Court errs in decision, the Legislature shall correct. Well?

Walter F. Heydt

Bedford

Ineptitude

    I can’t speak for Nancy Pelosi but most of us would like to forget the eight years former President George W. Bush were in office. The ineptitude and downright stupidity shown by his Administration in the midst of a crisis was repeated over and over again. The frosting on the cake for all Americans was obviously - the response to Hurricane Katrina and the lack of direction with the White House, Homeland Security, FEMA, the EPA, the National Guard and the local governments of Louisiana and Mississippi.

    From President Bush on down - everyone just sat on their hands, and watched the waters rise, people die,  and billions in property damage occur. The response? Point fingers of blame, hold Committee and Sub-Committee meetings, useless photo ops and news conferences while showing total lack of leadership and responsibility.

    Flash forward to 2010 and after months of epic springtime flooding in the Mid-Western and Central States, with little or no response from Washington, we now have the Gulf of Mexico Disaster - and yes it is truly an epic disaster!

    It is now approaching 50+ days of constant pollution, wildlife death and damage to pristine beaches and estuaries, huge loss of tourist and fishing industry business, and permanent scars to our beautiful Gulf Coast that may never be corrected or restored.

    How does President Obama respond? He just took lessons from the George Bush handbook and has now sat on his @#! doing nothing while a totally incompetent British Petroleum Corp. has lied about the scope of the damage, done little or nothing to contain it, promised to pay for it while

preventing the Coast Gaurd and private industry from assisting in the massive cleanup effort; then - holding useless media events to tell us all how they’ll make it right.

    President Obama and Congress’ reaction? Send down the most ineffective and clueless person in his administration (Janet Napolitano Head of Homeland Security) who along with retired Admirals stood there and told us “Don’t worry - be happy!”, while in Washington, they hold Committee and Sub-

Committee meetings, hearings, photo ops, and hire more Czars to oversee broken Bureaucratic Agencies who couldn’t even respond to a trash can fire without holding a hearing of some sorts.

    The head of the Minerals & Mining Services of the Interior Dept. resigns (of course they need a fall guy/girl), and meanwhile this thing just keeps getting worse.

    Does anyone in Washington have a clue how to really respond to a major disaster? Can a President be Presidential for a change and take control of a situation rather than wait for stumbling idiots to argue over how to respond or who’s in charge? No - they would rather be reactive instead of proactive. They would rather go to fundraisers and protect their Parties’ chances of re-election rather than do the right thing and help stop the catastrophe. They would rather see the costs of the disaster escalate to unimaginable proportions.

    Washington is so broken, so corrupt - that it is virtually impossible to fix what’s wrong up there without going back 250 years and starting all over as a country!

    Stop making excuses President Obama, take the bull by the horns and stop this ecological disaster before the entire Gulf and East Coasts of America are poisoned with oil and our Country is permanently changed for the worse forever!

Peter A Fisette

Moneta