Memorial Day 2012: "This flag is presented by a grateful nation."

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / May 25, 2012

Members of the 86th Airlift Wing honor guard conduct a flag-folding ceremony at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, 2009.

Zachary Ehren

Founder and Editorial Director, The Traveling Yeti

Posted: 05/25/2012 11:05 am

I sit in the break room rehearsing the lines over and over. The fluorescent lights, white walls, drinking fountains and lunch tables make me feel like I am sitting in my high school's cafeteria. But instead of sitting with my old classmates, I am surrounded by men in uniform and VFW members.
The next service will be for a WWII veteran.

"Say the first line 5 times. Then say the second line 5 times. Then say the last line 5 times," Cooper says to me.
This flag is presented by a grateful nation...This flag is presented by a grateful nation...This flag is presented by a grateful nation...This flag is presented by a grateful nation...This flag is presented by a grateful nation,

it is an expression of appreciation for the honorable and faithful service rendered by your loved one... it is an expression of appreciation for the honorable and faithful service rendered by your loved one... it is an expression of appreciation for the honorable and faithful service rendered by your loved one... it is an expression of appreciation for the honorable and faithful service rendered by your loved one... it is an expression of appreciation for the honorable and faithful service rendered by your loved one.
Please accept my sincere condolences. Please accept my sincere condolences. Please accept my sincere condolences. Please accept my sincere condolences. Please accept my sincere condolences.

I did as he said and by the time I finish saying all three lines, five times each, totaling fifteen lines, my brain is too tired to think about the anxiety. But, nonetheless, the anxiety is there. I can feel my stomach continually tighten underneath my dress greens.

"Don't worry; I was nervous the first time too. But the nerves go away and you will be able to say it just fine."

The sound of Cooper's words comfort me but I can only half listen to what he is saying. I am repeating the lines over and over in my head. The thoughts are so loud and fast that everything outside of my head sounds like background noise.

This flag is presented by a grateful nation,

I had participated in countless veterans' funerals in the past two weeks. Sometimes there were more than four in one day. I was able to make it through so many services because I did not have to look or interact with the bereaved during the last two weeks.

My sole responsibility was to take the flag off of the coffin with my fellow soldier performing the funeral with me. I would then fold the flag into a perfect triangle. My partner would tuck the other end of the flag into the corners and make sure it looks like a giant, blue paper football covered with stars. The flag would then be taken from me and presented to the next of kin.

it is an expression of appreciation for the honorable and faithful service rendered by your loved one.
Folding the flag was more work than presenting it, but I did not have to speak to the next of kin when folding. I did not have to look into their eyes and see their sorrow. I did not have to hold myself back from giving them a hug and trying to comfort them without just the use of my words.

All of my anxiety and continuous repeating of the lines make the thirty words that need to be said feel like I am required to publicly state the entire WWII memoir, With the Old Breed.

Please accept my sincere condolences.
It is time to make the way down to the benched service area where the funerals are performed. Polacek, Cooper and I wait at the end of the driveway for the family to arrive. The funeral procession shows up and we salute the hearse as it approaches. I can see the flag on top of the coffin through the windows as it passes. We wait for the pallbearers to unload the coffin, then the three of us drop our salute.
I unconsciously went through all of these moves while I consciously kept repeating the words over and over in my head.
This flag is presented by a grateful nation,
Polacek and I walk to opposite ends of the coffin where we raise another salute when Cooper begins to play taps. My heart gradually begins to beat faster.
it is an expression of appreciation for the honorable and faithful service rendered by your loved one.
Once taps finishes, Polacek and I pick up the flag while my heart is under the impression that my body is running.
Please accept my sincere condolences.
Polacek begins folding.
This flag is presented by a grateful nation... This flag is presented by a grateful nation... This flag is presented by a grateful nation...
Each fold he gets closer to me.

Thisflagispresentedbyagratefulnationforthehonorableandfaithfulservicerenderedbyyourlovedone
My heart thinks my body is in a full sprint.
This flag by a grateful nation service and honorable presentation of your loved one
Both my mind and heart are on overdrive.
Please accept my MOST HEARTFELT AND MOST HUMBLE CONDOLENCES YOU WILL EVER HAVE FROM SOMEBODY! EVER!
Polacek finishes folding the flag and I tuck in the corners. I manage to see past the numerous television screens blaring different messages in my brain, and notice Polacek giving me a look. The look is telling me that I do not need to worry and that the next forty-five seconds will go exactly how the Army would expect.
I take the flag and my head goes silent. No words. No lines.
The next of kin, a middle aged man that is probably the veteran's son, is sitting in front of where I am standing and I approach him slowly. I do not have any courage to look at his face and I do not dare look anywhere near his eyes.
I kneel down in front of him.
................................
All of the words I had countlessly repeated in my head are lost in the cosmos of my brain. The motors are burnt out and no words come out of my mouth. Time ceases to exist. I heard and felt every heartbeat. Every pair of eyes in attendance at the funeral feel like individual sources of heat radiating in my direction.
I look up and see this man's eyes. My heart aches when I see his sorrow as he is holding back tears.
The eternal five to ten seconds end and I know something needs to be said. My mouth starts moving without any assistance from my brain.

"The service from your loved one will never be forgotten from the continued memories by you and your family. Keep him in your heart and always cherish the service he provided for all of us to live comfortably and enjoy our beautiful country. Please accept my sincere condolences."
At least I had managed to get the last part correct.

I stood up and saluted him, then marched back towards the end of the driveway where Polacek and Cooper were waiting for me. While marching, I go over the last five minutes in my head. I was disappointed with myself that I had a mental collapse and blanked on almost everything I had rehearsed prior to the service. But, I am happy that what I did say was something that came from my heart and not was written on a card that was issued to me.

When witnessing a veteran's funeral, a person will notice that every move is made with robotic precision. This is created by the discipline the military has taught every soldier from their first day of service. Nonetheless, every soldier that has the honor of performing this service can feel the humanity and the strong emotions that are tied to that task.

 The faces of the soldiers are expressionless, but their hearts are closely connected to each veteran that has passed away. Every day countless veterans leave us, and every person that has served in uniform mourns their loss.

I do not know the person that is being buried at Rittman National Veteran's Cemetery this morning. But I know that this person fought in one of the greatest wars our world has ever known, so my country and the rest of the world would not have to live under fascist rule. For that, I am forever grateful.

Kansas Governor signs act allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense abortion drugs.

Verne Strickland Blogmaster /  May 19, 2012

Brad Cooper | The Kansas City Star

Gov. Sam Brownback has signed into law a bill that will allow pharmacists to refuse to provide drugs they believe might cause an abortion.
Called the Health Care Rights of Conscience Act, the new law will bar anyone from being required to prescribe or administer a drug they "reasonably believe" might result in the termination of a pregnancy. The law was signed Monday.
Critics say the law will open the door for a pharmacist to refuse a request for something like the "morning-after" pill, which the Mayo Clinic says can prevent or delay ovulation, block fertilization or keep a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus.
They argued that the law puts pharmacists and physicians in a position to refuse birth control and that it will affect many women, especially those in small towns and rural communities since the health provider wouldn’t be required to provide a referral somewhere else.
Abortion opponents said the bill is a narrow upgrade of a 1969 Kansas law that said no one should be required to perform or participate in abortion procedures.
State Rep. Lance Kinzer, R-Olathe, was the bill’s sponsor. He said the law was intended to cover the abortion drug RU-486, not contraceptive medications. The morning-after pill is different from RU-486, which is used to chemically induce an abortion.
To be protected under the law, Kinzer said, a pharmacist would need "reasonable medical basis" to believe the drug would cause an abortion.
If someone were fired or sued for refusing to provide a drug, he said, he or she could then litigate whether there was a basis for believing the drug would cause an abortion.
He said the conscience protection would apply to any drug that would cause harm to an embryo after it is fertilized.
So-called conscience clauses have been around for more than 40 years following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1973 that legalized abortion.
Since 1970, Kansas has had a law that said no one should be required to perform or participate in an abortion procedure.
But in recent years across the country, the issue has moved to pharmaceuticals, particularly those given in an emergency to prevent a pregnancy.
Four states — Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and South Dakota — have laws that allow pharmacists to refuse to fill an emergency prescription for contraceptives, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Three others — Florida, Maine and Tennessee — have broad refusal measures that don’t specifically mention pharmacists.
This is the fifth bill restricting abortion that Brownback has signed since taking office.
Last year, the Republican governor signed bills requiring new licensing criteria for abortion clinics and requiring parental consent for juveniles to get an abortion.
Brownback also signed a bill banning insurance coverage of abortion and another one that tightened limits on late-term abortion.

Senator Richard Burr: Unanimous Rejection of President's Budget Proposal

May 18, 2012

Verne Strickland Blogmaster

Unanimous Rejection of the President’s Budget Proposal

Despite our troubled economy and our $15 trillion national debt, President Obama and Senate Democrats refuse to propose a responsible federal budget.  On Wednesday, the Senate voted unanimously against the President’s budget proposal which failed to rein in spending and reduce the national debt, imposed taxes that would have inhibited economic growth, ignored the pending insolvency of Medicare and Social Security, and used budget gimmicks to create the illusion of savings.

Merely voting down this destructive proposal is not enough, however.  We made a promise to the American people who elected us into the Senate to do our jobs, yet it has been over three years since the Democrat controlled Senate passed a budget.  This is inexcusable.  A responsible budget is a vital first step toward getting our economy back on track and reducing our massive debt.  American families understand that times are tough, and they are making sacrifices in order to make ends meet.  The federal government, on the other hand, continues to spend like there is no tomorrow.  We need a serious budget that will tackle our economic crisis, work towards job creation, and provide for the security of future generations, not more of the same inaction and lack of resolve.

I talked about this at length in an interview with Jerri Jameson on WWNC yesterday morning.  In case you missed it, you can listen it to it here or read the full transcript on my blog.

Ilario Pantano. He'll be here because his ideas stick. You'll see

  Verne Strickland Blogmaster / May 15, 2012

TWO PRIMARIES DO NOT A TRUE STATESMAN MAKE -- OR BREAK. PANTANO'S FUTURE IS JUST BEGINNING.

 

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Thu, 02/10/2011 

At the CPAC panel on “How Political Correctness is Harming America’s Military,” Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness continued her campaign against gay and lesbian members of the armed forces serving openly and honorably, but she was upstaged by GOP congressional candidate Ilario Pantano, who insisted that America is meant to be a Christian nation and that the military must reflect biblical values.
 

Donnelly’s remarks were a mostly unsurprising reprise of the arguments she used in her failed effort to prevent Congress from repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.   She slammed the Pentagon for advancing equal opportunity “to an extreme” and recycled arguments about living in close quarters and chaplains supposedly being forced to abandon their religious beliefs.

One of Donelly’s main arguments did not seem exactly respectful of our armed forces: she said repeatedly that servicemembers can’t be counted on – or trained – to control their sexual urges. That’s why, she said, we are losing so many ship captains due to sexual misconduct. Sexual mistreatment of women in the military is not their fault, she said, but it’s not surprising.

But Donnelly’s comments seemed thin gruel compared to the Religious Right red-meat hurled into the crowd by Ilario Pantano, a former and current GOP congressional candidate from North Carolina.   Pantano, a former Marine, didn’t dwell about the specifics of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell because he wanted to talk more broadly about the threat of moral relativism to the nation and the military.

He insisted that America is and was meant to be a Christian nation and that our problems come from denying the truth of Jesus:  “The ultimate founding document of the United States is the Bible.” The nation’s problems were unsurprising given that we have kicked God out of classrooms, courts, and foxholes. Pantano’s made attacks on the “Ground Zero Mosque” part of his 2010 campaign.

It’s time to start offending people, he said, and time to start talking about God’s truth. He said that America’s media, academic and cultural institutions have been infiltrated by agents of atheistic, socialist and communist regimes. (In Q&A with reporters afterward, he confirmed that he was not speaking only about our history but also about today.)

The divide between the east and the west, he said, boils down to Christian and non-Christian. America was “undeniably” founded as a Christian nation and to suggest otherwise “is simply untrue.” He argued that members of the military have to be grounded in biblical truths, and blamed the thousands of suicides among veterans on the “God-shaped hole in our hearts.”

Pantano, who said he and his children are learning Chinese, asked, “What are the Chinese afraid of?”

“It’s not capitalism, it’s not Google, it’s not Wal-mart, it’s not Boeing, it’s not Islam. They’re afraid of Jesus Christ."

Ilario Pantano endorses GOP nonimee David Rouzer, urges supporters to join him.

This is the man we fought for. He's still strong and faithful with a heart that's in the right place.  Verne Strickland

Wilmington, NC: May 10, 2012

Friends, David Rouzer is our Republican Nominee for the 7th Congressional District. I support him and I hope you will too. 

I ask that you focus on the importance of a strong and unified conservative voice in defeating Barack Obama and I ask that you help David Rouzer in his effort to build a Republican firewall here in SE North Carolina.

We cannot afford the luxury of hurt feelings or disappointment. We were knocked down on May 8, but I ask that you get up and like me, brush yourself off and get back in the fight. 

Yesterday does not define us.  What you, your friends and family choose to do in the coming days will say more about your character than any political victory or defeat ever could.

Look to the example of General Robert E. Lee. It pained him to surrender, but he knew that he must and he knew that America needed him to lead the charge in healing its wounds.  Had Lee chosen to engage in partisan guerilla attacks, the war between the states would still be underway today.  Instead General Lee chose to do his duty as a Christian gentleman and work for peace in the years after the war.

  

I ask all of you to join me in humbly trying to live a witness of love, compassion and forgiveness for a cause bigger than all of us.  Let us make ourselves small so that we can make our faith big. If we can do that, it will be clear that there is only one way forward: Together.

We are in an ideological battle for the soul of our country.  If you truly believe that the future of America is at stake, as I do, than you and I cannot afford to delay in supporting David.  How we got here or the squabbling of intra-party politics will be of little consequence to your children and grand children as their futures are mortgaged by Obama and his team.

My experience on the battlefield has reaffirmed Winston Churchill’s adage: “It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.” Today what is required is that we defeat Barack Obama and his lieutenant here in SE North Carolina: Mike McIntyre! We must ensure that we have a strong majority of conservative Republicans in the State House, the US Congress and the White House. 

We must work to ensure David Rouzer is our next congressman, Pat McCrory is our next Governor and Mitt Romney is our next president. The arguments have been made and the verdict has been rendered. Will you join me in putting your country and your duty first? Standing off on the sidelines is not an option, my friends.

Below are links to the Websites for David Rouzer, Pat McCrory and Mitt Romney.

I have just contributed $25 dollars to all of them and I ask that you do too. Put your money where your mouth is, join me and commit to victory in November!

www.DavidRouzer.com

www.PatMccrory.com

www.MittRomney.com

I remain Always Faithful, to God, Corps, and Country.

Your Friend, your servant and your brother in Christ,

Ilario Pantano

###

David Rouzer won only four counties in carrying NC GOP7 over Pantano

Verne Strickland / Blogmaster / May 10 12:10 AM

David Rouzer answers questions during an interview with Radio America in his Wilmington campaign headquarters Wednesday.

Patrick.Gannon@StarNewsOnline.com

Published: Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 4:02 p.m.

 

On his home turf of Johnston County, state Sen. David Rouzer dominated Tuesday's Republican primary, topping Ilario Pantano by more than 12,000 votes there.

Pantano, an author and former Marine who lives in Wilmington, wasn't able to overcome his lopsided loss in Johnston, despite winning eight of the 12 counties in the newly drawn 7th Congressional District.

Republicans in the N.C. General Assembly drew that county – including Rouzer's residence in rural McGee's Crossroads – into the district as part of last year's redistricting process.

When all the votes were tallied by early Wednesday, Rouzer defeated Pantano, the GOP nominee in 2010, by more than 2,800 votes and 4 percentage points, according to unofficial results from the N.C. State Board of Elections.

Despite winning just four counties – Hoke, Johnston, Lenoir and Sampson – Rouzer will face longtime Rep. Mike McIntyre, a Democrat from Lumberton, in the November election.

Rouzer, 40, is in his second term representing Johnston and Wayne counties in the state Senate. A former staffer for the late Sen. Jesse Helms, Rouzer also owns a small consulting business.

Rouzer also received a significant number of votes in the other main population centers in the 7th District – Brunswick and New Hanover counties, which were thought to be Pantano strongholds. Rouzer was virtually unknown in the Wilmington area a few months ago.

Pantano won both counties – 11,151 to 7,047 in New Hanover, and 8,333 to 4,641 in Brunswick. But Rouzer's showing there was enough to keep his huge lead from Johnston County intact.

NC7 GOP nomination tips Rouzer's way amid dust-up over TV report about Pantano rally

VERNE STRICKLAND: CONFLICTING VERSIONS OF WWAY-TV REPORT, AND MOOD OF PANTANO'S DEPARTURE SULLY TONE OF ELECTION EVENING.

By: Breanna Walden

WILMINGTON -- After a nail biting election night, State Sen. David Rouzer won the Republican nomination for the 7th congressional district race. Rouzer will now face long time Democratic incumbent Mike McIntyre.

Despite the turnout at his Wilmington rally being small, Rouzer said he had a good feeling all along.

"There were a number of folks down here in New Hanover County that walked by and nodded their head and said I am with you," said Rouzer.

When his opponent Ilario Pantano first walked into his rally in Wilmington, spirits were high despite Rouzer just pulling ahead in the polls.

Pantano urged his supporters to stay optimistic and no matter what the outcome, continue to fight for what they believe in.

"There's no choice but to get behind whatever the force is to bring conservative values to Washington, DC," said Pantano. "I believe while my opponent and I had a vigorous primary, we still represent a better alternative than a Democrat going back to Washington."
 
As the night went on, Rouzer was declared the winner but Pantano left his rally without officially conceding. "The fact of the matter is we still don't know what the outcome is so we are waiting to see what the outcome is and then we will evaluate that outcome," said Pantano. (This does not square with WWAY's critical description of Pantano's departure.)

FOR COMPARISON, LINK TO WWAY STORY:  http://www.wwaytv3.com/2012/05/09/the-rant-pantano-pouts-after-ap-calls-race

But Rouzer said Wednesday is day one of his new campaign.

"We're going to have to raise a bunch of money, we are going to have to get out and work really hard and we are going to go after the Democratic incumbent Mike McIntyre. He has been too wrong for too long," said Rouzer.

Pantano said he will take another look at the official results Wednesday morning and then make a decision about his next steps.

Randy Crow came in third place in this race.