[Ct-nfb] Fwd: [Nfbnet-members-list] Memorial Day Reflections

Phillip Magalnick philmag at optonline.net
Sat May 25 20:08:20 UTC 2019


Thank you for sharing this from Joe, a great guy, leader, and veteran! Truly reminds us of the true meaning of the day. I refuse to shop or partake in sales on this day!!

Respectfully,
P.A. Magalnick,JP
203-912-5783
Justice of the Peace, CT
President, National Federation of the Blind-SWCT Chapter
1st VP, National Federation of the Blind-CT Affiliate
Vice-Chair, Stamford Committee on Accessibility



> On May 25, 2019, at 11:41 AM, Maryanne Melley via CT-NFB <ct-nfb at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> Maryanne Melley
> President 
> National Federation of
> the Blind of Connecticut 
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
>> From: joe ruffalo via NFBNet-Members-List <nfbnet-members-list at nfbnet.org>
>> Date: May 24, 2019 at 9:17:03 PM EDT
>> To: nfbnet-members-list at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: [Nfbnet-members-list] Memorial Day Reflections
>> Reply-To: joe ruffalo <nfbnj1 at verizon.net>
>> 
>> 
>> **
>> Greetings to all!
>> For the past several years, I have forwarded the following reflections on
>> Memorial Day.
>> Please read through and hoping you will share with others.
>> Warmly,
>> Joe
>> 
>> We care. We share. We grow. We make a difference
>> Joe Ruffalo, President
>> National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey
>> 973 743 0075
>> nfbnj1 at verizon.net
>> www.nfbnj.org
>> Raising Expectations To Live The Life You Want!
>> 
>> Your old car keys can be keys to literacy for the blind.
>> Donate your unwanted vehicle to us by clicking
>> www.carshelpingtheblind.org
>> or call 855 659 9314
>> 
>> ****
>> Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years
>> following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many
>> Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding
>> family gatherings. God Bless You All!
>> 
>> ****
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Memorial Day Opinion Article
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Written by a Navy SEAL, so I think we should listen. Listen not because he's
>> a famous Navy SEAL, but because he's a member of our Armed Forces, and along
>> with all those men and women who've more than earned our respect and our
>> ear, this day should belong to them.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --------------
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Opinion: SEAL who shot bin Laden: Don't wish me a happy Memorial Day
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Don't wish me a happy Memorial Day. There is nothing happy about the loss of
>> the brave men and women of our armed forces who died in combat defending
>> America. Memorial Day is not a celebration.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Memorial Day is a time for reflection, pause, remembrance and thanksgiving
>> for patriots who gave up their own lives to protect the lives and freedom of
>> us all - including the freedom of generations long gone and generations yet
>> unborn. We owe the fallen a debt so enormous that it can never be repaid.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Memorial Day is a time to honor the lives of those who would rather die than
>> take a knee when our national anthem is played. But they will fight and die
>> for the rights of those who kneel.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> This holiday is a time to think of young lives cut short, of wives and
>> husbands turned into widows and widowers, of children growing up without a
>> father or mother, of parents burying their children.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Memorial Day is a time to think of might have beens that never were. Of
>> brave Americans who put their country before themselves. Without these
>> heroes, America would not be America.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Unfortunately, for many Americans this solemn holiday might as well be
>> called Summer Day - marking the unofficial start of the season of barbecues,
>> 
>> days at the beach, time spent on baseball fields and golf courses, hiking
>> 
>> and enjoying the great the outdoors. All those things are great - we all
>> appreciate them and they are some of the best things in life.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> But Memorial Day is not Summer Day. Nor was the holiday created as a way to
>> promote sales of cars, furniture or clothes.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Another Memorial Day brings with it a whole lot more than the start of
>> summer. Since last Memorial Day, grass is now growing above the final
>> resting places of many young men and women whose lives were taken too soon
>> while defending our country in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other far-off
>> places many Americans have rarely heard of.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> When Army Sgt. La David Johnson, Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, Sgt. 1st Class
>> 
>> Jeremiah Johnson and Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright were killed last October in an
>> ISIS ambush in Niger, many Americans asked: We have troops in Niger? These
>> 
>> unknown soldiers lost their lives protecting you - every one of you reading
>> these words.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Think about this: Millions of high-school seniors are walking across
>> auditorium stages this season, receiving their diplomas. Most will go on to
>> college or jobs, but some will choose a career of military service, joining
>> the second generation of American warriors fighting in the Global War on
>> Terror - a war that began with the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that
>> 
>> took the lives of almost 3,000 people in our homeland.
>> 
>> Most of these new recruits - who were not even born or who were just infants
>> when the 9/11 attacks took place - will make it home just fine. But some
>> will not. I pray that I am wrong, but the sad truth is that the number of
>> American war dead on Memorial Day in 2019 will be higher than it is on this
>> Memorial Day.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Memorial Day, I salute my brothers and sisters-in-arms who have served
>> beside me in War on Terror. My heart especially goes out to the families of
>> those who did not return home. In fact, I think about all those who served
>> 
>> and those who have given their lives fighting for America from our country's
>> earliest days in the Revolutionary War. They all have my gratitude.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> We think we are strong, but in war any of us can be turned into just a
>> memory in an instant. And war seems to have been the universal experience of
>> just about every society on the planet at one time or another, for as long
>> 
>> as there have been human societies.
>> 
>> How do we stop the wars resulting in such tragic waste of lives? How do we
>> stop the number of American war dead and war dead in other nations from
>> growing? I wish I knew the answer. But battle lines are being drawn and
>> redrawn, and wars and terrorist attacks just keep going on and on. Weapons
>> 
>> are getting bigger. Bombs are becoming smarter and more lives are being lost
>> every day all over the world, leading to more death, more anger and more
>> war.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Some are so loyal to their cause that they strap bombs on their bodies or
>> fly passenger jets into buildings. They conduct beheadings. They set
>> prisoners on fire. How do we find common ground with them? Do we even try to
>> find common ground, or do we finally take the gloves off and start landing
>> punches intended to take our enemy out for good?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I've been on over 400 Army combat missions and have seen more war than most
>> Americans. More than I care to remember, but cannot forget. There is never a
>> shortage of war. War spreads faster than fire and like fire it leaves
>> destruction in its wake.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> It hurts my heart as an American every time I see another service member's
>> body being brought home draped in an American flag. But it hurts my heart as
>> a human being with every act of war we are all unleashing against each other
>> around the world.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> This Memorial Day, I urge all Americans to remember all the fallen sailors,
>> soldiers, airmen, Marines and Coast Guard members who have so bravely served
>> our country, as well as their families.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> And I urge all Americans to join me in the hope and prayer that somehow,
>> someday people around the world will focus more on our similarities than our
>> differences and that we will move closer to a time when war is just a memory
>> 
>> - part of our past but not our future.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Robert O'Neill is a Fox News contributor and ex-Navy SEAL best known as "the
>> man who killed Usama bin Laden." O'Neill joined the Navy in 1996 and
>> deployed as a SEAL more than a dozen times, participating in more than 400
>> combat missions across four different theaters of war.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> C2018 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Veterans poem
>> 
>> It???s the veteran
>> 
>> not the preacher
>> 
>> Who has given us the freedom of religion.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> It???s the veteran
>> 
>> Not the reporter
>> 
>> Who has given us the freedom of the press.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> It???s the veteran
>> 
>> Not the poet
>> 
>> Who has given us the freedom of speech.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> It???s the veteran
>> 
>> Not the campus organizer
>> 
>> Who has given us the freedom to assemble.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> It???s the veteran
>> 
>> Not the lawyer
>> 
>> Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> It???s the veteran
>> 
>> Not the politician
>> 
>> Who has given us the right to vote.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> It???s the veteran who honors the flag
>> 
>> It???s the veteran who serves under the flag
>> 
>> No matter where they serve,
>> 
>> God Bless Them All!
>> 
>> God Bless America!
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz_js_aMaV0>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz_js_aMaV0
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> **
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> God Bless The USA
>> 
>> <https://www.youtube.com/embed/daqwGRdRIsk?feature=player_detailpage>https://www.youtube.com/embed/daqwGRdRIsk?feature=player_detailpage
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Frank Sinatra considered Kate Smith the best singer of her time, and said
>> that when he and a million other guys first heard her sing "God Bless
>> America" on the radio, they all pretended to have dust in their eyes as they
>> wiped away a tear or two.  Here are the facts... The link at the bottom will
>> take you to a video showing the very first public singing of "GOD BLESS
>> AMERICA". But before you watch it, you should also know the story behind the
>> first public showing of the song.  The time was 1940. America was still in a
>> terrible economic depression. Hitler was taking over Europe, and Americans
>> were afraid we'd have to go to war. It was a time of hardship and worry for
>> most Americans.  This was the era just before TV, when radio shows were
>> HUGE, and American families sat around their radios in the evenings,
>> listening to their favorite entertainers, and no entertainer of that era was
>> bigger than Kate Smith.  Kate was also large; plus size, as we now say, and
>> the popular phrase still used today is in deference to her, "It ain't over
>> till the fat lady sings".  Kate Smith might not have made it big in the age
>> of TV because of her size and appearance, but with her voice coming over the
>> radio, she was the biggest star of her time. Back then, music was more
>> important than appearance or the ???program???. Kate was also patriotic. It hurt
>> her to see Americans so depressed and afraid of what the next day would
>> bring. She had hope for America and faith in her fellow Americans. She
>> wanted to do something to cheer them up, so she went to the famous American
>> song-writer, Irving Berlin (who also wrote "White Christmas") and asked him
>> to write a song that would make Americans feel good again about their
>> country.When she described what she was looking for, he said he had just the
>> song for her. He went to his files and found a song that he had written but
>> never published, 22 years before -- way back in 1917. He gave it to her and
>> she worked on it with her studio orchestra. She and Irving Berlin were not
>> sure how the song would be received by the public, but both agreed they
>> would not take any profits from ???God Bless America???. Any profits would go to
>> the Boy Scouts of America. Over the years, the Boy Scouts have received
>> millions of dollars in royalties from this song.  This video starts out with
>> Kate Smith coming into the radio studio with the orchestra and an audience.
>> She introduces the new song for the very first time and starts singing.
>> After the first couple verses, with her voice in the background still
>> singing, scenes are shown from the 1940 movie, "You're In the Army Now." At
>> the 4:20 mark of the video you see a young actor in the movie, sitting in an
>> office, reading a paper: it's Ronald Reagan.  To this day, ???God Bless
>> America??? stirs our patriotic feelings and pride in our country. Back in
>> 1940, when Kate Smith went looking for a song to raise the spirits of her
>> fellow Americans, I doubt whether she realized just how successful the
>> results would be for her fellow Americans during those years of hardship and
>> worry..... And for many generations of Americans to follow. It has been
>> suggested that this song replace the ???Star-Spangled Banner??? as our national
>> anthem because it???s easier to sing, and most folks already know the words.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Now that you know the story of the song, I hope you'll enjoy it. Many people
>> don't know there's a lead in to the song since it usually starts with ???God
>> Bless America???....." So, here's the entire song as originally sung.....
>> ENJOY!
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> <https://www.youtube.com/embed/TnQDW-NMaRs?rel=0>https://www.youtube.com/embed/TnQDW-NMaRs?rel=0 Virus-
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ****
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ARLINGTON CEMETERY
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> This is really an awesome sight to watch if you've never had the chance.
>> 
>> Fascinating. Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 1.How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the tomb of the
>> Unknown Soldier and why?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 21 steps:
>> 
>> It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute which is the highest honor given any
>> military or foreign dignitary.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 2. How long does he hesitate after his about face
>> 
>> to begin his return walk and why?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 21 seconds for the same reason
>> 
>> as answer number 1.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 3. hy are his gloves wet?
>> 
>> His gloves are moistened to prevent his losing his grip on the rifle.
>> 
>> 4. Does he carry his rifle on the same shoulder all the time and, if not,
>> why not?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> He carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb. After his march
>> across the path, he executes an about face and moves the rifle to the
>> outside shoulder.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 5. How often are the guards changed?
>> 
>> Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a
>> year.
>> 
>> 6. What are the physical traits of the guard limited to?
>> 
>> For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be between 5' 10'
>> and 6' 2' tall and his waist size cannot exceed 30".
>> 
>> They must commit 2 years of life to guard the tomb, live in a barracks under
>> the tomb, and cannot drink any alcohol on or off duty for the rest of their
>> lives. They cannot swear in public for the rest of their lives and cannot
>> disgrace the uniform or the tomb in any way.
>> 
>> After two years, the guard is given a wreath pin that is worn on their lapel
>> signifying they served as guard of the tomb. There are only 400 presently
>> worn. The guard must obey these rules for the rest of their lives or give up
>> the wreath pin.
>> 
>> The shoes are specially made with very thick soles to keep the heat and cold
>> from their feet.
>> 
>> There are metal heel plates that extend to the top of the shoe in order to
>> make the loud click as they come to a halt.
>> 
>> There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform. Guards dress for duty
>> in front of a full-length mirror.
>> 
>> The first six months of duty a guard cannot talk to anyone nor watch TV.
>> 
>> All off duty time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid to rest in
>> Arlington National Cemetery.
>> 
>> A guard must memorize who they are and where they are interred. Among the
>> notables are: President Taft, Joe Lewis {the boxer} Medal of Honor winner
>> Audie L. Murphy, the most decorated soldier of WWII and of Hollywood fame.
>> 
>> Every guard spends five hours a day getting his uniforms ready for guard
>> duty.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ETERNAL REST GRANT THEM O LORD AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> In 2003 as Hurricane Isabelle was approaching Washington, DC, our US
>> Senate/House took 2 days off with anticipation of the storm. On the ABC
>> evening news, it was reported that because of the dangers from the
>> hurricane, the military members assigned the duty of guarding the Tomb of
>> the Unknown Soldier were given permission to suspend the assignment. They
>> respectfully declined the offer, "No way,
>> 
>> Sir!" Soaked to the skin, marching in the pelting rain of a tropical storm,
>> they said that guarding the Tomb was not just an assignment,
>> 
>>  it was the highest honor that can be afforded to a service person. The
>> tomb has been patrolled continuously, 24/7, since 1930.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> God Bless and keep them..
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Submitted by, Debbie Azzarone, Vision Loss Alliance, editor, Blind Vine .
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> **
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> The following was written by Natasha ishaq,  an Employment Development
>> Engagement Guidance, EDGE, program blind high school student.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Heroes: A Tribute To Those Who Sacrifice Themselves For Others
>> By Natasha Ishaq
>> 
>> You venture to the lands beyond
>> To the seas that shall forever stand strong
>> Living as legends Dying as heroes
>> Out on those battlefields You serve as our shields
>> Bearing those great burdens of pain
>> Through sunshine and through rain
>> 
>> When the homes burn down
>> And we all weep
>> When the bombs explode
>> And we all loose sleep
>> 
>> Our prayers are with you
>> Because we want you to be safe too
>> For you are out there sacrificing yourself
>> Saving the lives of others, as it is not one man for himself
>> 
>> Where you go and what you do
>> You are always pushing through
>> All the war zones of blood and death
>> Where you struggled to catch your breath
>> 
>> Up in the air you fly
>> Through the hard-blowing winds that sigh
>> But come down to respond to the injured ones who cry
>> Calming them down as their tears begin to dry
>> 
>> Living on the sea
>> Because an unknown face needed help to be free
>> Riding the ocean waves
>> In order for all those who are lost to be saved
>> 
>> From the shooting guns
>> To the many runs
>> To the child who is dying
>> You carry them away from harm, even though inside crying
>> 
>> Out there where piercing screams slice the air
>> Out there where the dirt and mud of the earth cling to the clothes you wear
>> Out there where the arms of death may embrace you at any given time
>> Out there is where you fight for us while we wait to hear the chime
>> 
>> The chime telling us that the streets you roam
>> Will become the ones of your home
>> The chime telling us that the battle is done
>> And your journey home has just begun
>> 
>> You venture to the lands beyond
>> To the seas that shall forever stand strong
>> Living as legends
>> Dying as heroes
>> 
>> To all of those who serve our country--soldiers, veterans,
>> firefighters, physicians, rescue teams, police officers--all of you who put
>> the lives of others before you in times of great catastrophe, I thank you
>> all. Whether you roam the streets today, or rest at last in peace, your
>> efforts and sacrifices are the marks that are forever engraved in the world
>> that shall forever remember you, as your simple but complicated acts of
>> extreme kindness and compassion speak for themselves.
>> 
>> Sincerely,
>> Cadet Private Natasha Ishaq
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ---
>> This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
>> https://www.avg.com
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