Memorial Day, Again
Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of "CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back." He's blogging today at HuffPost about the Memorial Day speech he wants Barack Obama to give. It ends like this:
"It's time we see through Bush and McCain's loud talk about patriotism and ask them what is so patriotic about pushing working America into bankruptcy by driving oil prices through the roof because of a dumb war on the one hand, and by mostly asking only working Americans, to serve on the other? When was the last time Bush asked our elite to volunteer?
What is so patriotic about refusing the sons and daughters of working America the same comprehensive-type of GI Bill our fathers got after World War Two?
This Memorial Day let me be clear: I want to honor those who served and serve by ending George Bush and John McCain's war-of-choice. I want to bring our troops home. I want to get back to a fair military were soldiers serve the amount of time they volunteered for not a day more.
And when our young men and women have served I want to thank them by providing a first-class education from a grateful nation.
With a strengthened military, one that's no longer stretched to the limits and beyond, I will pursue our real enemies and protect our actual security. I want to truly support our troops, not just have photo ops with them.
When I am President I will take the trillions of dollars Bush and McCain keep wasting in Iraq, and find alternative energy solutions so that the price of oil won't matter. We'll build roads and railways and schools and create jobs so that working America may prosper and we can all move forward.
That is how we'll make America strong again. That is an America our enemies will fear. That is how we'll honor those who gave their lives so that we may live free."
It is so way past time for new leadership in this country.
Last Memorial Day I spent the day making my way around the city from one end-the-war-now demonstration to another and ended it at the Eyes Wide Open exhibit, where a pair of boots from each American soldier - and shoes representing the countless Iraqi civilians, including way too many children - killed since President Bush began this war were on display in Grant Park. My photos are online here.
This video is of a song The Robert Cray Band did for the Eyes Wide Open exhibit. After you watch it, go to the website to add your name to a letter asking (again) Congress to fix this mess now.
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