Memorial Day and the Turkish flotilla By Jerry Mazza

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By Jerry Mazza
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.jerrymazza.com
June 4, 2010

We were out of town Memorial Day weekend, visiting with my in-laws in their senior living residence in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It sits under a huge Mid Western sky that shone blue as an American eye. The sun reflected on the boundless spread of land that will soon bear its corn and bounty from the rich black earth of rural farms.

As a New York City guy, I felt like I was in another world, almost somnambulant in the warm light when I woke with a start. I heard the news, oh boy, that Israel had attacked the Turkish flotilla, ironically on Memorial Day, the day we honor the war dead.

Peace Heroes: Casey Sheehan by Cindy Sheehan

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by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
crossposted at (Islam Times)
May 30, 2010

Memorial Day and the “holiday” weekend lay a double-whammy claim on my emotions every year.

Thirty-one years ago today—May 29—my first child was born—a son. We named him “Casey” because we were huge baseball fans and it just seemed like such a fine Irish-American name. His middle name, Austin, is an old family name of mine.

I went into labor with Casey a week early and I was in labor with him (in those days, knowing the gender of the baby was not routine) all day on Memorial Day in 1979. The labor was not too harsh and he was born at exactly one hour and one minute past midnight.

Memorial “Daze”: Nightmares of Empire by Philip A. Farruggio

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by Philip A. Farruggio
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
28 May, 2010

Hitler’s German army invaded and occupied Poland. Many soldiers were killed. The Japanese invaded and occupied Nanking and Shanghai. They had many soldiers killed. The same for the British when they occupied India and Palestine. The local populations did not wish to be occupied by foreigners, especially ones with loaded guns pointed at their faces. The Indians of the plains did not take well to our Calvary and forts. Many of our young troops were slaughtered at Little Big Horn, because they were seen as invaders. The people of Germany, Japan, Britain, America mourned those soldiers killed while occupying foreign soil, and rightly so. Yet, to honor them does an injustice to the victims of their occupation. Why? Well, in all the above instances, those nations illegally occupied the countries mentioned. So, to honor a soldier that is used for such heinous acts is an injustice to both the memory of him and the memory of the victims of such assaults.

Memorial Day 2010: Milestones Of Mourning by Ed Ciaccio

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by Ed Ciaccio
Dandelion Salad
Featured Writer
May 28, 2010

Recently, it was announced that the 1,000th U.S. soldier was killed in Afghanistan.  By Memorial Day, 2010, U.S. taxpayers will have spent $1 TRILLION on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  More than one million Iraqis have been killed in our illegal, unnecessary war of lies and aggression on Iraq, and uncounted tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Afghanis and Pakistanis have been killed in the Bush-Obama Af-Pak Wars of choice and Empire in those devastated, poor lands.

In addition, more than 300,000 U.S. and NATO soldiers, and millions of Iraqis, Afghanis, and Pakistanis have been maimed in these wars.  Nearly five million Iraqis, and hundreds of thousands of Afghanis and Pakistanis, have been displaced by these U.S.-NATO wars.

Memorial Day By Gary Corseri

By Gary Corseri
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
May 25, 2009

I am sick of the voices of heroes!
They cry from maniacal graves:

Video for Remembrance Day for Victims of US Empire by Cindy Sheehan

Note: Youtube pulled the video.  See: War is Unsuitable for Children: Another YouTube outrage by Cindy Sheehan

by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
May 24, 2009

Warning

This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

cindyforcongress

video no longer available (Youtube removed it)

see

Day of the Dead, May 25, 2009 by Cindy Sheehan

Day of the Dead, May 25, 2009 by Cindy Sheehan

by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
May 23, 2009

I was on an airplane flying to Orange County from Sacramento to attend the al-Awda Conference; which is a Palestinian Right’s Conference. Al-Awda translates to “The Returning, “ when the Pilot voice filled the cabin to make an announcement that I think went unnoticed by most of my fellow passengers, but I heard it.

As the plane was on the approach to John Wayne airport, the Captain came on the intercom to remind us all to “remember our brave troops who have died for our freedom.” Even in this post 9-11 paranoid paradigm, if I wasn’t belted in for landing, I would have popped out of my seat at 13D and charged up to the cockpit to let the pilot know that my son was killed in Iraq and not one person anywhere in this world is one iota more free because he is dead.