Lest We Forget
My WSJ column -- with the help of Ricochet -- focused on "monuments to me," i.e., bridges, buildings, and the like that bear the names of the Congressmen and Senators who used the public's dollar to pay for them. It generated some interesting mail, including suggestions from people that the standard should be no public monuments paid for taxpayers while the pol is living.
One of the more interesting reader suggestions was that before we slap a politico's name on a building, we first exhaust the list of our Medal of Honor recipients. This suggestion came at almost the same moment I received an email from the mother of one of our recent MOH recipients, reporting that the family had just put up a headstone for her son, Army Staff Sergeant Robert J. Miller.
If you read the presidential remarks and citation at the Army website, you will see that Sergeant Miller should be a household name in America but is not. How much better I would feel, if on our way to New York, instead of riding thru the Frank R. Lautenberg Rail Station I would take my children through the Sgt. Robert Miller Rail Station. Wouldn't that make for what the President calls a splendid "teaching moment" -- in this case, about a man whose family's service to our nation goes back to the Revolutionary War?
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Comments :
May '10
Re: Lest We Forget
May '10
Re: Lest We Forget
Here's another suggestion: No mailing or piece of stationary may be printed using a politician's name unless he pays for it. Not his campaign, but the politician.
No "Joe Shlabotnik, 16th Congressional District" followed by 14 committee assignments.
And no signs at the state border, either. Welcome to Ohio! Ted StriXXXXX, No, John Kasich, Governor.
Don't care if I'm visiting and if I live there and don't already know, tough!
Nov '10
Re: Lest We Forget
I'm in complete agreement. So long as there's nothing in honor of Audie Murphy.
Dec '10
Re: Lest We Forget
Is there a link to the WSJ story?
May '10
Re: Lest We Forget
While it is an inspiring story, we are living in a world where a hiker who cut his own arm off with a dull knife is GQ's man of the year and gets a multimillion dollar movie deal. Our culture adores the lone hero, or the idea of one. Virgil is dead.
Aug '10
Re: Lest We Forget
Such a noble sentiment.
Pearls before swine , I fear.
Jul '10
Re: Lest We Forget
It is my experience that, in terms of Medal of Honor winners, the military gets those things done in their own universe.
I had no idea who my grandfather was until his military funeral. I found out from the chaplain at his service, stuff that he would never have spoken of himself. Some days all of that paperwork pays off.
Jun '10
Re: Lest We Forget
Nothing should be named after anybody until that person has been dead for ten years.
As for politicians, there should be a special category, a politician has to be dead for fifty years before something can be named after him.
Jun '10
Re: Lest We Forget
"If you read the presidential remarks and citation at the Army website, you will see that Sergeant Miller should be a household name in America but is not. How much better I would feel, if on our way to New York, instead of riding thru the Frank R. Lautenberg Rail Station I would take my children through the Sgt. Robert Miller Rail Station. Wouldn't that make for what the President calls a splendid "teaching moment" -- in this case, about a man whose family's service to our nation goes back to the Revolutionary War?"
Yes, Yes,YES!!!
May '10
Re: Lest We Forget
I don't know how the Army does it, but I know the Navy has named several ships after Marines and Sailors who have received the Medal of Honor.
May '10
Re: Lest We Forget
Naming a ship for John Murtha galls me. Like the Medal of Honor suggestion.
Dec '10
Re: Lest We Forget
Reflecting on places like sports facilities in Baltimore and the U of M (Minnesota) that were named "Memorial Stadium" in honor of Veterans and their fallen comrades that no longer exist. Now we have stadiums named "Petco", "Target"......sigh.
May '10
Re: Lest We Forget
How about restricting the names of living politicians to new penitentiaries only?