Way past time America, can't use United States anymore as we've greatly drifted from that label for the society within these recognized borders, to pony up, your own Sacrifice, a decade plus of not added to the previous decades, for these wars but especially for the results of! These Veterans of and our Veterans of the previous! Deficits, with the congressional rubber stamping, started rising Before 9/11, surplus was quickly depleted, tax cuts came with, and costs are still added to daily!
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2012 – During the weekly address from the White House, President Obama and his wife Michelle wished service members, veterans and their families a happy holiday season, and called on all Americans to remember those in harm’s way.
The theme of the president and first lady’s address was reunions. What makes this season so special, Michelle Obama said, is spending time with those we love.
And more military families are getting the chance to do that, the president said. The war in Iraq has ended and the drawdown in Afghanistan continues.
“This week let’s give thanks for our veterans and their families,” the president said. “And let’s say a prayer for all our troops – especially those in Afghanistan – who are spending this holiday overseas, risking their lives to defend the freedoms we hold dear.”Michelle Obama stressed the role that military families play, saying that when those in uniform
“answer the call to serve, their families serve right along with them. Across this country, military spouses have been raising their families all alone during those long deployments.”She also noted the sacrifices military kids make.
“Our military families sacrifice so much on our behalf, and Barack and I believe that we should serve them as well as they serve this country,” she said.read more>>>
December 20, 2012 - Washington, D.C. winters can mirror what many view to be characteristics of the city itself – cold and awful. The winter of 1981 was a textbook example of wintertime in D.C., in more ways than one. The fate of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was being decided in the halls of Congress and the Reagan Administration. A flurry of activities was orchestrated by well-funded opposition to Maya Lin’s design for The Wall. Her design was criticized as being too modernistic; referred to as the Black Gash of Shame and even compared to the Ovens of Dachau.
Chuck Hagel was a prime target for the opposition. He was the talented second-in-command at the Veterans image-1 Administration, a decorated Vietnam War veteran and a highly respected appointee in the Reagan Administration. He was told that he should join the team opposing Lin’s design. If he did not join the opposition, he would be out of work. Friends at the White House would see to it that he would be fired. Most people would have caved. Hagel did not.
Hagel never got fired. The opponents left, probably dazed at the outcome. Hagel went on to serve President Reagan in other capacities throughout the Presidency, and eventually, Nancy Reagan joined the National Sponsoring Committee for The Wall. A compromise was reached with the opposition, and in March 1982 we hosted an emotional groundbreaking. Hagel was a speaker. read more>>>
January 1, 2013 - Byoung Baek flew out from Rochester, N.Y., on Christmas Day for the Rose Parade. But she didn't come for the weather or the revelry or the spectacle.
December 28, 2012 - In a cavernous warehouse on a recent weekday, Rose Parade volunteers were busy painting and clipping flowers as they rushed to complete their float in time for New Year's Day festivities. But all activity paused when the star of the decorated stage arrived.
Dec. 27, 2012 - A team of American-Statesman reporters spent six months investigating how hundreds of Texas veterans have died since coming home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This month, more than two months after the results of the Statesman investigation were published, the Department of Veterans Affairs said it will study the deaths of veterans nationwide.
Dec 28, 2012 - Like many people I know and public figures I’ve seen recently, the killings in Newtown’s elementary school have made me reconsider my position on gun control. As a hunter, a veteran, and a dyed-in-the-wool radical, I write this to show fellow gun owners and, more important, my fellow Americans who are distrustful of an armed government with an unarmed populace that the logic I espoused for most of my life is bankrupt.