In Cedar Rapids we went to a memorial park and held another rally to support our troops and their missions in the War on Terror.
I got to say I REALLY loved this park! I thought that the memorials were all really great, with the black dark stone all smoothed out it reminded me of the Vietnam Memorial. Also the way everything was laid out from a central point was nice. I just thought it worked…everything kinda had equal importance and you don’t necessarily think of wars as a continuum of conflicts, some minor and some great, but more of just…I don’t know its hard to explain. In contrast to thinking of wars as just little dots along our nations history, it makes you think of wars as each one stemming from something greater, like protecting our country and its freedoms. That country, our freedoms, symbolized by the flag in the middle of the park, and each conflict that is connected directly to that central idea are all pivotal and equally important to protecting our freedoms. Basically it’s kind of like saying that whether it was all out warfare such as in WW2 where our whole existence as a nation was threatened, or a policing action in Kosovo where we worked with UN peacekeepers…all were equally important in protecting our people’s freedoms and our nations security.
Another thing I really loved about this park was the howitzer and the tank on display! I wanted to climb up on the artillery and sit on the barrel so I could take a picture with an old Jane Fonda pose. Didn’t have time though.
As for the rally we had assistance from another Marine Corps color guard to help honor the flag and fly the colors while Diana sang Where Freedom Flies.
Deborah Johns and Debbie Lee made mention today and the day before of General Patreus and his report, but most notably the criticism that Patreus was getting even before he made his report! All of us here and MAF just found it shocking that MoveOn.org could publish and advertisement saying Patreus is betraying the American public before even listening to what the man has to say. We all agreed it was very disrespectful and uncalled for, especially the way he was treated in that hearing by all the D’s who didn’t want to hear the good news that Patreus had.
