40 Years of Grief--Remembering the Hope

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was brutally taken from us forty years ago today. There are a number of tributes around the blogosphere but I'll give a bit of KOS Diarist, Audio Guy:

I remember the hope, and I remember the loss. I remember the way dreams died at Kent State. And my heart has been broken for forty years, mourning for the country that I love, and the dreams that I grew up with.

read the rest...

And finally, Robert F. Kennedy, who himself would be dead in months, makes the painful yet eloquent announcement of MLK's murder.

Honor The Fallen REDUX

We found out this past week we lost a friend in Iraq. Someone my husband served with until this past July at BAMC. Dr. Roselle Hoffmaster, Captain, US Army, Godspeed and Rest in Peace. Roselle was the 90th military female to die. DailyKOS has a nice write-up about Roselle. Also there is a guestbook for her friends and family at Legacy.com.

UPDATE: The Patriots over at Comments From Left Field have added Roselle to their tribute for Fisher House. I posted on this here.
If you want to really support the troops, real people not just faceless numbers, give what you can to support Fisher House, the organization that houses military family members while their loved one is treated in a military hospital. It's gotten a bit viral and they have raised over $5,000 and are trying to raise five more over the next 5 days. Read all about it and give what you can, it may make the difference between someone making it to recovery or someone dying alone. I guarantee it will do more than that ribbon magnet made in China.

Honor The Fallen UPDATED

We just found out we lost a friend in Iraq. Someone my husband served with until this past July at BAMC. Dr. Roselle Hoffmaster, Captain, US Army, Godspeed and Rest in Peace. DailyKOS has a nice write-up about Roselle. Also there is a guestbook for her friends and family at Legacy.com.

UPDATE: The Patriots over at Comment From Left Field have added Roselle to their tribute for Fisher House. I posted on this here.
If you want to really support the troops, real people not just faceless numbers, give what you can to support Fisher House, the organization that houses military family members while their loved one is treated in a military hospital. Read all about it and give what you can, it may make the difference between someone making it to recovery or someone dying alone. I guarantee it will do more than that ribbon magnet made in China.

I Lost My Son to a War I Oppose. We Were Both Doing Our Duty.

Andrew J. Bacevich teaches history and international relations at Boston University. His son died May 13 after a suicide bomb explosion in Salah al-Din province. Read his WaPo OpEd:

Parents who lose children, whether through accident or illness, inevitably wonder what they could have done to prevent their loss. When my son was killed in Iraq earlier this month at age 27, I found myself pondering my responsibility for his death.

Among the hundreds of messages that my wife and I have received, two bore directly on this question. Both held me personally culpable, insisting that my public opposition to the war had provided aid and comfort to the enemy. Each said that my son's death came as a direct result of my antiwar writings.

Read the rest.

Daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. Dies

Photo Credit:Peter Dejong/Associated Press



The New York Times writes it up. Rest in Peace Yolanda Denise King. We as a people, lose another thread in the fabric designed to evolve the human spirit.

Bad Chimpy, No Banana

George W. Bush consistently shows himself to be an increasingly bigger asshole as each day goes by. During today's convocation for the VT victims, Chimpy relied on one of the most powerful weapons in his arsenal of bullshit--invoking terror. Junior is just not happy unless he's scaring someone. How lowdown does one have to be to speak of horrific details of murder as condolence? Don't answer that. Dubya has taken this country to new, unprecedented lows in virtually every area where his sphere of influence reigns, which to say is everywhere.

After invoking said details, the ceremony was briefly halted to attend to someone who had fainted. As if the damage he did today to the survivors of yesterday's murderous spree was not enough, he also spoke of, "some Americans will be praying for you today..." Another in a long-running series of divisive gaffes he routinely imposes on the American people. I guess the rest of us Heathens just don't give a shit.

Rest in Peace all those in Virginia and Iraq and Afghanistan who have died. May your journeys to peaceful shores be swift and your arrival triumphant.