My name is Jan C Scruggs, Founder and President of the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial. 30 years ago, I helped build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This
monument healed millions with the engravings on a black granite wall. Now, I am taking those names and putting a story and picture behind it in a new museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC; the Education Center at The Wall.
Jon Stewart just had an awesome interview with Sergeant Leroy Petry. Sergeant Petry is the latest, living, recipient of the Medal of Honor. A very brave and honorable soldier, he has an amazing story to tell. Whether you agree or disagree with the war, is moot. What’s amazing about his story is the amount of courage, bravery and selflessness that one man can have towards his troops. His story can inspire us all the be better people (and he also shows off his kick-ass new robotic arm).
Here’s the interview with Jon Stewart:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/thu-july-14-2011-leroy-petry
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Soldier in Afghanistan
It’s hard to believe, that will all the coverage of The Terminator’s illegitimate child, Katie Couric leaving evening new and Newt Gingrich running for office, that there’s a war going on, but apparently there is. The war in Afghanistan, often known as ‘The Forgotten War,’ has been going on for over a decade and troop morale is reported to be at one of its lowest points. And who could blame them. The troops are overseas fighting, and risking their lives, and the biggest news story is about Arnold Schwarzenegger and his illegitimate child. It’s pathetic!
+Continue ReadingThe advantages and disadvantages of online media have been prominent in recent weeks. Today’s media is challenged with delivery of news events in split second time. With social media networks as FaceBook and Twitter, we have seen in the last two months, the revolution in Tunisia that resulted with the entire government being dismantled to the recent events in Egypt’s political unrest and revolution of the people.
In the history of the United States, we are witnessing world events change and have the opportunity to see the changes in almost real time. Tunisia’s revolution began by a citizen frustrated by social poverty and repression that used self-immolation. Witnessing that videotaped event on-line sparked the unrest across the Middle East.
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Group movements in politics are truly important. Politics deal mostly with making decisions at a group level. So you can’t talk about politics unless you also talk about group movements.
Group movements are important in politics because of the following reasons:
#1: Group movements may turn the situation violent.
When the power of the group is unleashed, governments can do very little about it. They will have to abdicate or do what the group wants.
On the other side, it may take decades until group movements become strong enough. The process is slow. Politicians can afford to ignore them for a while.
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So, Defense Secretary Robert Gates just announced that troops will be in Afghanistan until 2014. He announced this on the same day that a Rasmussen poll came out and said that the majority of American’s wanted a withdrawal from Afghanistan within a year (31% wanted an immediate withdrawal).
Here’s what I don’t think people understand about the military. Even after 2014, all the troops won’t be gone. American military troops will most likely be in Iraq and Afghanistan for decades and decades. We will never pull out all of our troops. It just won’t happen. We need a base in the Middle East and there’s no way in Hell that the military is going to allow ourselves to give up that position.
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