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mass murder slaughters of innocent travelers, butchered bodies prominently displayed in public venues, stray bullets hitting American university campuses. These are some highlights... the intensity of the war is climbing to horrendous heights no doubt, but as with all things, this too will pass. The key here and now is to understand that... Posted By Carlos Arredondo at 01:02 AM You can always confidently pursue Truth understanding that its inestimable reward to you when you attain or find it will be greater than any career, paycheck, prestige, fame or success. Posted By Carlos Arredondo at 03:03 PM In last week’s Blog, I proposed some meaningful questions about the nature of law. My aim was to hopefully cut through surface-level rhetoric, and.... Posted By Carlos Arredondo at 05:21 PM Where does written law begin and where does it end? What is the scope of its jurisdiction? When does it become irrelevant and ineffectual to its original purpose?... Posted By Carlos Arredondo at 10:42 AM Good news from south of the border... Posted By Carlos Arredondo at 01:42 AM Tuesday, July 20, 2010 a panel discussion titled “Beyond Border Security: Combating Mexico’s Violent Drug Cartels” was held on Capitol Hill to address the issues of border violence and arms trafficking into Mexico. Third Way, a think tank claiming to be the “leading moderate voice of the progressive movement”, hosted the event where Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s ambassador... Posted By Carlos Arredondo at 03:36 AM Beyond helping undocumented students gain access to higher education and providing a pathway to financial resources, the Dream Act is an advantage to us all. Posted By Regina Cantu at 03:33 PM While most Americans spent the last weekend preparing for festivities and celebration of the July 4th holiday, enjoying the costly freedom our forefathers so graciously passed down to us, our neighbors south of the border were unfortunately not able to share in the same spirits of festivity. Rather, caught in the wake of tragedy, they found themselves dealing with the calamity of an untimely natural disaster of historic proportions. Posted By Carlos Arredondo at 08:05 AM On Monday we will come together to honor those who have fought to make this nation the great country that it is. As we reflect on the sacrifices that veterans have made to defend us all, we must not forget the important role than immigrants have played and continue to play in shaping our nation. Rafael Peralta emerged as the hero of the Second Battle of Falluja after deliberately sacrificing his life to save fellow Marines. He was with a unit clearing houses of weapons and insurgents when a group of insurgents attacked from the back room of a home the Marines had entered. A firefight ensued, and Peralta took a bullet in the head — a friendly-fire ricochet. Then an insurgent threw a grenade. Despite his injury, Peralta pulled the grenade under his body before it detonated. By absorbing the force of the blast, he saved the lives of an estimated six of his fellow Marines.
Six years ago Peralta’s mother Rosa was informally told that her son would be nominated for America’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor. But that day never came, stunning his family and the soldiers who had witnessed his bravery firsthand. to find out the rest of his story.
It also delves into the controversy surrounding how and when Medals of Honor are now awarded:
THE AMERICAN MILITARY has dozens of medals that can be awarded for performance or participation in various endeavors, but only a small handful, known as “valor awards,” are given for acts of courage. The highest and most revered of these is the Medal of Honor. (It is sometimes mistakenly called the Congressional Medal of Honor, presumably because, unlike other military decorations, the Medal of Honor is awarded in the name of Congress.) According to military regulations, the Medal of Honor is awarded to a soldier who performed a deed of “personal bravery” that was “beyond the call of duty” and “involved risk of life.” The heroic actions of Medal of Honor winners are frequently cited by military instructors, and their names are even on occasion chanted in cadences during boot-camp training runs. By custom, all service members, regardless of relative rank, salute a Medal of Honor recipient. Despite its symbolic importance and educational role in military culture, the Medal of Honor has been awarded only six times for service in Iraq or Afghanistan. By contrast, 464 Medals of Honor were awarded for service during World War II, 133 during the Korean War and 246 during the Vietnam War. “From World War I through Vietnam,” The Army Times claimed in April 2009, “the rate of Medal of Honor recipients per 100,000 service members stayed between 2.3 (Korea) and 2.9 (World War II). But since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, only five Medals of Honor have been awarded, a rate of 0.1 per 100,000 — one in a million.” In response to criticism over this turn of events, the Pentagon is now reviewing its criteria for Medal of Honor awards and will release a report on July 31. Is heroism really dwindling or has modern warfare changed what it means to be a war hero?
Posted By Cristina Noriega at 02:54 PM At first, I thought Tom Hall's "Empathy for the Common Man" was going to be another platform for political discussion simply sourcing the murder of Brisenia and Raul Flores. Thanks to a mid-day cup of coffee, I had enough patience to skim the article until I saw the words, "little white girl," "children of color," "murder by racists," "media coverage," "Arizona," and "Holocaust Museum." How do those words fit together in a single article?! My interest was sparked, so I read on...
The progressive email arrived while I was lamenting the press coverage of the shooting at the Holocaust Museum. The facts of the shooting don’t seem in much doubt. A bigot with a long history of expressing his racism finally tried to go out in a blaze of hateful glory. And, like the plans for glory of so many other hatemongers, including Hitler, his plans failed. Hitler and Pol Pot had to face the judgment of history. This killer, like Timothy McVeigh, will have to face the judgment of a jury of his peers. His actual peers, not those he might wish were his peers. But while the nation fastened its attention on the shooting of a guard in Washington D.C., the Associated Press was trying to circulate a story about another murder by racists. The story was about a Latino father and his young daughter who were gunned down by right-wing, border “militiamen,”carrying badges and pretending to be enforcing U.S. sovereignty. The story got no traction. Ever wonder why non-Anglo children who are kidnapped or heinously murdered never receive equal fanfare as little white girls do? Ever wonder why media coverage of racist murders gravitates toward interesting, sexy, famous places like the Holocaust Museum instead of, for example, private homes of hispanic border families? While Mr. Hall's article covered a wide range of topics, his discussion of race politics and the differences between the Arizona/Holocaust Museum shootings captured my attention- The father was a legal resident. He was employed. He was doing what the right wing says it wants legal immigrants to do. But he and his daughter are now dead, shot in their home by self-proclaimed “patriots”. That’s right, shot in their home, not while working as guards in a public facility. But like the guard, shot because they were “racially inferior” in the eyes of their killers. Are they also racially inferior in the eyes of all those who believe that a killing by a madman in a famous venue is more important than the killing of a Latino family, in their homes, by an organized group of right-wing zealots? Similar questions get asked every time a little white girl is kidnapped and murdered. As the news trucks gather and pundits spew, a few minority voices cry out asking why we don’t give equal coverage to the regular killing of children of color. And we have to ask it as we see the intense coverage of an attractive Iranian woman, gunned down by the religious secret police for the crime of being where people were demonstrating for democracy. "Empathy for the Common Man" also helped distinguish the different kinds of bigots, racists who commit crime against immigrants and foreigners. Not all are motivated by religious beliefs, and not all are political activists... However, they are all united by one common denominator: ignorant hate. The murders in Arizona were different from these political murders. The killers were not religious fanatics trying to impose their viewpoint. They were members of “respectable” militia groups. “Respectable” bigots. The accused leader of the kill squad is a woman whose hate writings remained posted on a “respectable” militia website after the murders until the AP started asking about it. Now that she’s been arrested, the “respectable” bigots are trying to run from their association with the killers. [...]Where did they learn to kill little girls in their own homes? Our own Pentagon has refused to punish soldiers who rape and kill Iraqi and Afghani little girls, as long as the rapes and murders are in “combat zones.” These militia killers pretend they are fighting a war against racially inferior Latinos in our country. “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel” said Dr. Johnson in 1775. And so it remains today. This is neocon courage. How many Latino families like the one gunned down in Arizona are working to improve themselves? Without press fanfare, they mow our lawns, tend our children, and clean our offices at night. And without press fanfare, they die from the violence of racist killers pretending to be “protecting the good people.” They suffer and die while “the liberal media” ignore them and wait for the next JonBenét. The facts remain: a hispanic family 10 miles from the U.S./MX border is slain in their home during a home invasion by a team of white racist bigots posing as US Marshals. In the same month, an elderly white supremacist male walks into the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. and mercilessly shoots and kills an African-American security guard. Each story is indeed horrendous. Interestingly, the Holocaust/D.C. event clearly receives more national media attention while the Immigrant/Arizona story (arguably more brutal) is slow to catch and barely circulated with the same furrosity. Thanks Tom Hall. Photos courtesy of Change.org Posted By Tina Kosikowski at 02:33 PM |
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