Reveille
May 2000
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Reveille May 2000 |
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Published by
International Press Service If Reveille is e-mailed directly to you and your browser doesn't recognize the photographs and graphics, you can go directly to the site at www.ipspress.com. For other sites of interest--American Legion, VFW, Chattanooga Area Veterans Council, 82nd Airborne Association--go to the IPS Press Homepage. |
VFW Post 1289 host at National Cemetery Zach Wamp Memorial Day speaker
REP. ZACH WAMP speaks to a record crowd of some 800 attending the Memorial Day services at National Cemetery in Chattanooga. The event was coordinated by the Chattanooga Area Veterans Council and hosted by VFW Post 1289. Joe Murphy serves as master of ceremonies coordinated by CAVC to honor veterans Names of deceased veterans were read in the annual, somber Memorial Day ceremonies Monday, May 29, at the National Cemetery. Each post took a turn at the podium to report comrades who departed in the past year from their respective American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars or other veterans' organization. Rep. Zach Wamp will be the keynote speaker in the event coordinated by the Chattanooga Area Veterans Council. VFW Lookout Post 1289 was host with Joe Murphy serving as master of ceremonies. A music prelude by American Legion Post 95's band, the Legionnaires, began at 10:30 AM. Ceremonies started at 11 AM. Dan Lovin is chairman of the CAVC. Rev. Ted Painter, pastor of New Salem Baptist Church, delivered the invocation with Ralph Wilson commanding the CAVC Honor Guard to post Colors. The National Anthem was played by the Legionnaires and Joe Murphy led in the Pledge of Allegiance. CAVC Secretary Sherry Kimbrow recognized the Gold Star Mothers. Post 1289 Commander Carl Minnick led off the Last Roll Call. Candice Underwood, executive director of the National Cemetery, issued the welcome. Rep. Wamp was introduced by Dr. Albert C. Rhodes, past commander of Post 1289. Benediction was by Rev. Frank Ladner, CAVC chaplain, with Taps played by Jack Kinser. There was a 21-gun salute by the Honor Guard.
An open letter Dear Doctor— You used to come to our house when I had whooping cough or when mama couldn’t get out of bed. You knew when I was due this pill or that one, even asked about my great aunts and uncles and their own particular ailments. You were like a member of the family and had to time to talk to us. Times change, I know, and either a lot more are sick or hypochondriacs. Maybe there’s a shortage of doctors. Maybe the cost of living is so high now you have to have more patients than you have time for. Maybe there’s so much red tape from the government and insurance companies you don’t have time for your main profession—healing. It takes a long time to get your phone line and to make an appointment. After an hour or so in a crowed waiting room, I get called back and a nurse with my file in her hands asks, "And what are you here for today?" By now I’ve forgotten and hoped she would know. We finally figure that out together. She takes me to another room down the hall to wait my turn. You are still the friendly face when you arrive and ask how I feel. A sign on the wall had urged me to tell you. But it’s hard to remember and describe that pain that woke me up in the middle of the night, that time I got dizzy for no reason. I do my best and you write me some prescriptions or send me to some specialist. While I’m still trying to recall the main reason I came, I begin to feel I have to hurry. Maybe someone sicker than I needs you and I’m taking up time and space, like I’m slowing down an assembly line. You are still the friend I like, in whose hands I put my life. I just wish there was an answer and you had time to find it. It couldn’t just be nostalgia and old age, could it? Pete Chaney
Joe Murphy quartermaster quarter century Joe Murphy must hold some national VFW record as service as a post quartermaster. He has held the post at VFW Post 1289 since 1975, and did the work for ten years before that without the title. The post was chartered in 1927. A history of the post and listing of past commanders and quartermasters is available on the internet in the post’s website: www.ipspress.com/vfw1289.
Too late for new strict gun laws The public rush to pass more and more gun control laws is like closing the proverbial bar door after the horses have gotten out. Years ago it was illegal to own an automatic weapon without a special permit such as a collector’s license. Now it’s commonplace to have a pistol or rifle that fires a burst of rounds. Gun collectors have them. Anyone on the street can obtain one—legally or illegally. Laws are followed by honest people. Not criminals. The man who wants a machine gun to rob a bank or to commit murder doesn’t worry about getting caught. That happens to other people, he rationalizes. When the government buys guns to destroy them, it’s an exercise in futility. There are still plenty floating around. And it just gives the manufacturers impetus to make and sell more. By nature and history, America has a love affair with guns, from the early settlers to the Old West. The answer is in changing the public concept, not more laws.
Voice in the crowd . . . . . .by pete chaney This is my personal view—not shared by my veteran friends, not by veterans organizations, not by friends or even many churches. But I am very much opposed to the death penalty. I cannot understand how a civilized nation going into the 21st Century still goes back to making murder by the state legal and acceptable. It’s a throwback to the days of stoning an offender to death, of the time when public hanging or using the blade of a guillotine had a carnival atmosphere. Years ago I took a University of Maryland course where the story was related of a prominent New York business man was charged with murdering and cannibalizing five people. He admitted it, not comprehending why someone thought that was wrong. With his consent and the family’s blessing, he was quietly executed and the obituary said that John Doe had died and been buried. He was obviously insane. But everyone wanted to dispose of the embarrassment and the problem. Execution has always been the method of removing someone a majority doesn’t want, whether it be a Jack the Ripper or Jesus of Nazareth. It makes it all the more puzzling how a Christian can use religion to oppose the teachings of the Man who said "turn the other cheek." It’s more like the ancient Mosaic laws of "eye for an eye. . ." America is the only so-called civilized country still using state paid killing. And it doesn’t work to overall reduce crime. Texas has become the wholesale execution state. They still kill people there. There are many reasons to oppose the death penalty. The most compelling is it’s always the poor man led to the gallows. He has no sympathy, no press agent and, mainly, no high paid legal counsel. You would never see an O.J. Simpson, even if he were found guilty, or the Ramseys go to the gas chamber. That fate is reserved for the destitute and the hopeless.
Post Script Everyone is happy FRANCES COOLIDGE is feeling better. Her energy and presence is always welcomed at veterans functions such as the Armed Forces Day celebration with her husband CHARLES. They are an inseparable pair. ******** Veterans on the battlefield had no choice on what day they might die. No time off for weekends. But the National Cemetery has a standing rule—no burials on Saturdays or Sundays. It would cost too much. But how about the price paid by veterans who lost or risked their lives on weekends? ******** It was difficult to find anyone to full the shoes of CATHY KEMP who ably served Sen. BILL FRIST as his field representative. The senator has found a good man in TYLER OWENS who is approaching the job with intelligence and compassion, particularly sensitive to veterans medical needs. ******** When United Press International was bought by a fanatical religious group. HELEN THOMAS resigned after 40 years covering the White House. Only old newspaper people remember she took over from MERRIAM SMITH, the dean of his day for United Press. In the late 50’s UP and International News Service merged to form UPI. In those days the UP sports editor was OSCAR FRALEY, who authored the Eliot Ness story "The Untouchables." ******** It’s going to be a thankless job for animal control officer PAUL MILLER. If his folks pick up the family pet, he’s a villain. If he doesn’t pick up the strays scavenging the neighborhood, he’s slack. It’s a shame he can’t pick up those really guilty—owners who get a cute little puppy and then put it on the street to fend for itself when it grows up. ******** Chattanooga government should have more people like ORLANDUS METCALF, the brush and trash general supervisor. He’s attentive and cooperative with neighborhood needs. ******** One of our political philosophers commented on MARTI RUTHERFORD’s attention getting attacks on JIM KENNEDY, BILL SUDDERTH, PENN GUERRY and KEN HAYS as the "agents of the power structure" in Chattanooga. He said she was busy now kicking the same people she used to embrace. Only that’s not the way he phrased it. ******** When the Army Band from played a free concert at the Choo Choo as part of the Armed Forces Week celebration, efforts were made to get an audience there. Only 28 people attended from Chattanooga, America’s Most Patriotic City. It will be hard to get them to return. ******** Proposals by GEORGE W. BUSH to tie Social Security to the stock market gambles with Americans’ future. It presumes the market will always be stable and rise. What happens if a crash occurs as in 1929? Retirees would go to soup kitchens. The system needs attention, without putting it at risk. |
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