Day: May 28, 2012

Some Facts And Figures Appropriate For Memorial Day

As we honor veterans of all of our wars, with survivors from World War II on to the present on Memorial Day, it is worth some time to reflect on what war means.

So therefore, the following statistics gathered about the effects of war on America:

4,488 have died in the Iraq War, and 1, 973 in Afghanistan, for a grand total of 6,461 men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their nation. And about 35,000 veterans of both wars have been wounded, with about 20 percent of this total severely wounded!

24 Presidents have served in the military, out of 43 total, a little less than 60 percent.

29 presently serving US Senators and 21 percent of members of the US House of Representatives (about 92) have served in the military.

Only 3.3 percent of the American population, about 10 million people, have served in the military.

27-30 veterans are interred in Arlington National Cemetery every day.

124, 909 American veterans, both men and women, are interred in foreign soil.

Finally, 67,000 veterans are homeless and on the streets on any given night, and this is the greatest injustice imaginable!

Not one veteran should be homeless or jobless as a result of his service to his country, and much more needs to be done to help these people who gave of themselves to their country, returned, and have not been able to fulfill the American dream!

Beginning Of 13 Year Commemoration Of Vietnam Veterans At Vietnam Memorial In Washington, DC

Today, Memorial Day, marks the beginning of the commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of combat in the Vietnam War, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC, to be continued over the next thirteen years, through an initiative of President Barack Obama and actor Tom Selleck, a sign itself of bitpartisanship, since Selleck is a well known Republican.

58, 282 Americans died in Vietnam between 1962 and 1975, and the veterans were not received well at home when they returned.

This was a miscarriage of justice, and it is important that we recognize and honor the sacrifices of those who died, and those who lived on, often suffering in silence, as they felt rejected by the American people.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial,. one of the most impressive memorials ever built, is itself now thirty years old, and no one who visits the Memorial, whether one knows any of the people listed on the Memorial, can leave the site without experiencing a tear while at the site.

Whether the Vietnam War was popular or not at the time, we owe a debt of gratitude to those who served and sacrificed!

Barack Obama Campaign Strategy Evident Through Obama Victory Fund 2012 Store

If one is an Obama supporter and decides to purchase T shirts, buttons, hats, posters and other campaign paraphernalia form the Obama Campaign Store online, one becomes very aware of the President’s strategy for the upcoming election.

Contributions to the Obama Victory Fund 2012 are divided among state Democratic Party committees in ten states, all of which are “swing states”.

It is interesting to note the percentages assigned to these ten states.

They are as follows: Florida, 17 %; Ohio, 16%; Pennsylvania, 13%; Colorado, 11%; North Carolina, 11%; Virginia, 11%; Nevada, 6%; Wisconsin, 6%; Iowa, 5%; New Hampshire, 4%.

Note that two states which Obama won in 2008 are not on this list: Indiana, which the campaign believes will be very hard to win this time; and New Mexico, which seems much more certain this time as guaranteed for Obama.

Also, the idea that states which John McCain won in 2008 might be in play in 2012–Missouri, Arizona, Georgia, Montana–and are worth an investment, seems to have been dismissed.

It is clear most of the campaign will be fought in the ten states that the Obama Victory Fund lists, so any Obama supporter needs to consider purchasing campaign paraphernalia as a worthwhile investment in the future.