[RL/US] The Greatest Generation
Thedillpickl
Hi kids!
Serious shit today regarding infringement of Grandpa's liberty. I cannot believe this is happening in the United States of America (the real one, not pretend crap). Telling 90 year old WWII veterans they are not welcome at the war memorial that honors their comrades is insane. This goes beyond any inter party bitches or political wrangling. If you post something to the effect of "It's only because the Republicans yada, yada!" or "It's them blankety blank Democrats!" I will report you to admin myself.
I don't care to discuss your political view of health care or any government shut down. What I care about is the disrespect shown to the men who fought and gave their all to protect your asses from Totalitarianism. (For those unaware World War II does not compare to any wars that happened in the last 70 years, this one was for keeps, all or nothing.) I do not blame the Park Rangers, I look to a deceitful government that would spend more money to close the Capitol Mall than it costs to keep it open just so they could piss people off. WELL IT WORKED! I AM PISSED! Just not at who they want me to be pissed at. Congress voted one thing, the implementation was handled on a whole different level. Like I said, it cost more for them to put up barriers and bring in more Park Ranger than normal to keep people out than to just run the mall the normal way.
Some Pics
The original flag raising on Iwo Jima.
Wounded on Omaha Beach.
You look into this kids face and tell him that (assuming he survived) your politics is more important than him visiting HIS memorial before he draws his last breath.
Sixty eight years later they take the WWII memorial to honor the dead.
Here's an article with an interesting video. I'm sorry if you don't like me posting this here. I see this as more than just a US issue. No wonder the world is out of control today. I don't usually get very sentimental about things but this is one that upset me very much.
Comments
not sure that this was an original flag raising but rather staged one
Joe Rosenthal was the photographer that got all the accolades for the second flag raising. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima
looked too peaceful, isn't an excuse, i am still retarded xD
That is the original flag raising in the photo. It was raised after the Marines captured Mount Suribachi that morning. Though there were plenty of Japanese defenders on the Mount still. Notice the Marine in the front keeping his m-1 at the ready. The second flag went up a couple of hours later. It was a larger flag, so it could be seen by the men on the beaches. It was a morale booster, Iwo Jima was a blood bath to say the least. The second raising was not staged either. The photographer i think Rosenthal was his name, just happened to be there at the right time was the 6 men put up the second flag. 3. of those six would die soon after on that Island
True facts.
for some reason, incompetent brain probably, i forgot how staged raising looked like xD
I google everything anymore. I'm wrong half the time and the other half I don't know what the f I'm talking about. 😃
V
I believe that the Park rangers there are not being paid, but are still working.
That may be true but the question remains, why are there more? So far they've been cool, maybe because they know the 'closure' is wrong, maybe because Congressmen are standing there letting people in. IDK
That is a big part of Park Ranger Training, to remain very cool when dealing with the public/tourists. I used to tour a lot of Civil War Battlefields which most are National Parks. The rangers were always cool and most were filled with knowledge about the park that they worked at and were more than willing to share that info with you. It is one of those gigs you do because you really love it.
It's a true travesty, those heroes deserve better.
That's my point. No matter why or how these guys put their asses on the line big time. I feel the same way about firefighter and policemen. Anyone that puts themselves in harms way to protect me. What makes this even more tragic is these guys are 90+ years old. Just how many more chances are they gonna have to see the memorial?
If I could vote this 50 times I would. Total bullshit. One of the best RL articles ever. Thanks for saying it.
If I could vote this 50 times I would. Total bullshit. One of the best RL articles ever. Thanks for saying it.
Yeah, honestly, this whole mess is sad.
v
[removed]
Peace!
This kind of things happening all around the world, I'm afraid.
While I can understand why it's happening in Europe, I'm surprised hearing the same shit exists in U.S. - in the country that is known for its "Veteran Etos".
ethos*
BIG vote, despite I'm not a fan of injecting RL into erep.
I agree that eRep is a poor forum for RL events. This ruins the whole "I want to pretend something else" part of the game. If I did not have such a poor opinion of our govt. doing this I would say nothing here. These men (along with others from allied nations) literally saved the world from totalitarian oppression. To treat anyone that puts their life on the line like worthless troublemakers is beyond belief.
Sorry, still a bit upset by it all.
Don't apologize dill, you're right, it's completely ridiculous and insulting. it's things like this that show you just how ludicrous our bi-party system is.
Hard Voted...
Let charitable organizations have the opportunity to manage these places of public interest. Let them be funded through voluntary contributions if required. That way if people value them, they will let their wallets do the talking.
I don't have much but I would gladly send $10 / month.
FWIW, one of the Congressmen that went out on the mall to help the vets offered to pay the bill if the park service would 'reopen'. I did not catch the name. I wonder if anyone took him up on it.
That guy was not a congress critter, it was Reince Priebus chairman of the GOP, honestly it was just grandstanding. The same as with the congressmen that showed up, I mean it was these people that had their hands in shutting down the government. oh the irony,lol
http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2013/10/michele_bachmann_poses_with_world_war_ii_vets_occupying_dc_memorial_photo.php
...because she had nothing to do with it...
but
but
it is them no good greedy republikens!
xd
Just like that dag'nab guv'ment, where the solution is more expensive than the problem.
lol, yes it is always somebodies fault.
Why does a situation like this go across party lines if one side is clearly responsible?
I was trying to not be clearly obvious in the article because I did not wish to make this about political debate but to point out how govt. makes stupid choices that make no sense.
If you insist, one side is clearly responsible. Congress (Republicans) made the mistake of taking political action to pause ACA by blocking funding by the last option available. Unfortunately the Exec (Democrat Obama) who is conducting the Congress (Democrats) like an orchestra, denies any further negotiations and takes advantage of the situation to discredit the Republicans. The effort is made to pass legislation to fund line items individually (as they really are supposed to be done) but their is not enough time and Democrats block the effort.
Now to the problem at had. Instead of just closing the Parks Service as mandated the Exec orders the Capitol Mall closed and actually pays to have it barricaded against intruders. It remains unclear whether Park Rangers and the special mall police are being paid or if they are volunteering. In any event guards are posted to keep American citizens off of public property in the open air. Normally there is no restriction to the WWII memorial, people come and go as they please. This is obviously an effort to piss people off and point the finger at the Republicans who initiated the shut down, which they did. However the Exec is who directed that the extra effort be made to inconvenience people and start trouble.
Park closings at something like Yosemite would be expected. Staff are required to make sure everyone is safe and park regulations are followed. Many buildings with many services are operated. The mall has no such needs. Lock the doors to public restrooms and pick up the trash a week from now when this is all over. Capitol police are still on duty for security anyway.
One, speaking from a strictly objective point of view, why would the Democrats negotiate at all? It doesn't make sense logically. The Affordable Care Act, whether you agree with it or not, was passed through Congress, and upheld by the Supreme Court (barring some modifications like states' choice to expand Medicaid). The Republicans knew they couldn't defeat it any other way, so they used the budget as a ploy to delay the law for as long as possible. If the Democrats negotiate, they're not getting anything in return, they'd either get the status quo, or they'd lose. That's not compromise. That's strong-arming and poor politics. Objectively, of course, it would be a dumb decision on their part. Logically it would make no sense. It would just give Republicans free reign to risk a shutdown in order to bring about political change, literally holding the budget hostage.
As for the parks and the mall, the ONLY reason why the parks are "Open air" and people come and go as they please is BECAUSE the government is open. When it is shutdown, they legally do not have the funds to keep it open. The maintenance of the memorial is not free, neither is anything else. We take that for granted.
While it's sad, terrible that it's happening, it's not a malicious attempt by the Obama Administration to make the Republicans look bad (although they need no help in that department). There are plenty of bad things happening, like furloughed workers and the fact that food facilities aren't going inspected. Both awful and unsustainable and though we'd like for the workers to get paid and the facilities inspected, they legally cannot because of the government shutdown, for the same reason that the parks and memorials are closed. They're only open BECAUSE the government has the money to keep them open. During the shutdown, they legally cannot be kept open or open to the public, because the budget doesn't call for it.