Letters to the Editor
My reflections on the true meaning of Memorial Day
This is the quiet time.
This is not a time for joy and parties and festivities. I do not want to hear about your special sales and deals >…This Weekend Only… < .
It is a time for reflection; to honor, to remember, to grieve.
We who remain feel loss, anguish, sorrow, emptiness, guilt.
These feelings do not diminish with time. If anything, they overwhelm us at this time of year. All the “Moving Ahead” and “Carrying On” and “Dealing With It” we do for 51 weeks a year comes crashing down leading up to this Day of Remembrance.
We can pretend we are strong and put on a good face as we march through life. However, beneath the calm exterior, the grief is building pressure, looking for a way out.
So, when we look upon a grave or a memorial or statue of a Hero, the floodgates open and it all comes out.
Do not think me weak when I cry at a grave of an unknown Warrior. You do not know the effort it takes, the strength it requires, to hold back the tears the other 364 days a year.
I find strength in the fellowship of my Brothers in Arms, for they have the same feelings, the same memories, the same sorrow. And I will support and love them as they support me.
No, I will not “celebrate” on Memorial Day.
This is the quiet time.
Stephen M. Pittman IV
Reader answers letter with a presidential blunder list
In George Tucker’s letter, he stated that gas was up to the $4.00 and $5.00 range with Joe Biden, but it fell to $2.89. How did this magical occurrence happen? Joe drained our Strategic Petroleum Reserves to lower gas prices just before the midterm elections. Joe claimed that he refilled the reserves. Is that why the S.P.R. is 40% lower than when he took office?
In 2022 Joe made a major blunder on CNN where he stated that the U.S. military was low on ammo. That was just Joe being Joe. Not to be confused with his brother Moe of the Three Stooges, alleged brother, I should add.
George writes that Biden had little action in bringing illegals across our border. Really? Joe told migrants to surge to the border. He raised his hand to give them Medicaid and he said we could take in two million migrants. That sounds like an invitation.
George says that ICE is abusing American citizens’ rights to freedom. Honest mistakes can happen, but ICE has to enforce our immigration laws. Throwing frozen water bottles at ICE agents’ heads, playing tag with agents with your car and kicking out the taillights on their vehicles may not end well for a person. A protester told an ICE agent that she did not want the pedophile that he was trying to arrest to be removed from her community.
As for Iran, President Trump said that Iran loses every war, but they always win the negotiations. Ask President Obama. No matter how many pallets of money he delivered to them or how many cheesy nuclear treaties that they signed and cheated on, they refused to give up their desire for a nuclear bomb to use on America.
George argues that Iran needs 90% enriched uranium for a state-of-the-art nuclear weapon. Experts estimate Iran has 60%. Enough to build 11 low-technology atomic bombs. Iran’s first nuclear weapon could be a missile – deliverable nuclear bomb in a matter of months.
President Trump should amend his statement. Iran always wins the negotiations … until now.
Karen Stone
