This gathering is about what happened on September 11, 2001.  A few minutes before I got the following notice of the memorial in my email, I received another from a friend.  Read this…if it doesn’t make blood shoot out of your eyes…then go ahead and celebrate a National Day of Service.  Forget the fact that 2,996 of your fellow citizens were murdered on that day.  DH and I will be in Eastlake honoring those that died that day and those that have given all to keep us safe from those who would do us harm again.

NEVER FORGET

From John “KIKS” Kikol:

On September 6, 2009,  in Eastlake Ohio, a Ceremony will be held at the Boulevard of Flags honoring Ohio’s Fallen Hero’s from the military, police and firefighters. The Ceremony will begin at 11:00 AM with Jim Mantel of WGAR as the guest host and Monica Robins of WKYC will open the ceremony with the National Anthem. The public is invited to join in the ceremony to recognize the 343 firefighters, 60 police/port authority officers, 125 soldiers in the Pentagon, 44 lives on Flight 93 and the remaining 2819 lives lost in the World Trade Center Buildings. Furthermore, over five thousand two hundred American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan and we want to honor their memory and express our never ending support and prayers for their families.

Guest speakers include Robbie Senatore a New York Firefighter; Joseph Gross a wounded warrior who lost his right leg fighting in Bagdad in 2005, representing the Wounded Warrior Project; Thomas Dean, father of Bedford Hts. Officer Jarod Dean and Dennis Grella, father of Army Pfc. Devin Grella who lost his life in Iraq on September 6, 2004. At the conclusion of the Ceremony there will be a reading of the names of Ohio’s Fallen Hero’s from the Military (10), Police (2) and Firefighters (3). After a moment of silence, the Willowick VFW/Eastlake Post 978 will fire a twenty one gun salute to the fallen, followed by taps and concluding with Amazing Grace played by the Cleveland Firefighters Memorial Pipes and Drums.

As in past years motorcycle processions will be leaving from Harley Davidson Sales Company of Cleveland, Lake Erie Harley Davidson of Avon, South East Harley Davidson of Bedford Hts., Century Harley Davidson of Medina and Western Reserve Harley Davidson of Mentor. The motorcycles with stage at 9:00 AM and depart from the dealerships at 10:00 AM with the exception of Lake Erie HD which will be departing at 9:30 AM. All bikes are invited to join in the group ride to the Eastlake Ceremony. Upon conclusion of the Ceremony there will be a combined processional ride to Western Reserve Harley Davidson, the major event sponsor, for food, entertainment and a Ceremony at 2 PM.

The ride and Ceremony will take place regardless of weather, so please attend to express your support of the families of our Fallen Heroes. Please circulate this information to your contact list. Thanks

Any questions please contact John “KIKS” Kikol at 440-327-6966 (office) or email kiksharley@aol.com .

Sgt. Benjamin died while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.  He grew up in Garfield Heights as did Cpl. Brad Davis.  This Garfield family honors Sgt. Benjamin and Cpl. Davis and all their brothers and sisters in arms.

Sgt. Benjamin wrote on his mySpace page in May…

“Most people don’t understand what we do. I love my job. Yes, I said I love my job. How many of you can say you are right where you want to be at this point in your life? I know I can.”

Someone asked me earlier this week if I was going to watch a program on teevee about Woodstock.  My answer, “Hell, No!”  Truth be told…I had an invitation to go…I didn’t.  One of the better decisions of my life.  This morning DH asked if I’d read Doug Giles yet.   Now,  I’ve got lots of Mom work to do today, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t put this up on the fridge for your Sunday entertainment.

I could go on about how phoney the whole Woodstock/Peace/Love schtick was…but as I said, I have Mom stuff to do.

I heard the President make these remarks the other day….

I don’t think he was talking about Congressman Barney Frank who opposed regulating Freddy Mac and Fannie May.  I don’t even think he was talking about any Republicans that are opposed to his policies.  (Although I think it’s a safe bet he wants them to shut up.)   I think he was talking about the people showing up at town hall meetings and are getting in the faces of their elected representatives.  As Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina said to Democrats as they headed back to their home districts…

“If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard,”

Didn’t the President promise to listen to the concerns of the citizens?  Shouldn’t that include representatives elected by the people?

I’m reading a biography of Benjamin Franklin and came across this quote…mind you this was written in 1726 when he was 16 years old.

“Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty  without freedom of speech, which is the right of every man as far as by it he does not hurt or control the right of another; and this is the only check it ought to suffer, and the only bounds it ought to know.

This sacred privilege is so essential to free governments that the security of property and the freedom of speech always go together; and in those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything else his own.

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech…

The administration of government is nothing else but the attendance of the trustees of the people upon the interest and affairs of the people; and as it is the part and business of the people, for whose sake alone all public matters are, or ought to be, transacted, to see whether they be well or ill transacted, so it is in the interest and ought to be the ambition of all honest magistrates to have their deeds openly examined and publicly scanned.  Only the wicked governors of men dread what is said of them.“

And, yes, Mr. President…we know you won…you are the President…of ALL the people…even those whose talking…disagrees with you.

(I sure hope no one turns me into the Thought Police Fishy Email Czar Internet Snitch Brigade whoever keeps track of the folks who disagree.)

This is mean spirited and dangerous.

This is brilliant and profound.

Came across both of these on Drudge this morning.  Others have noted the memory lapse too.

*Bacon!

*A gallon can of Sherwin William’s “Summer Day“

*Bonide Liquid Copper Fungicide Yes, still waging chemical warfare in the garden.  This time it’s the nasty brown fungi that’s attacked almost everything.  Hmmm…global warming.  This nasty stuff usually only spreads during cool wet weather.

* The rain has stopped and the sun’s come out and maybe before the end of the day I will have a room painted “Summer Day” and the garden will be dry enough to hose down with fungicide.

*Captain Scott Speicher’s remains have been found.  A sad gratitude.  Not the result his family has been praying for these past 18 years.  But I think knowing must be better than not.

September 15…

Stand up with the DAV with the first-ever virtual march for disabled veterans.

We owe them everything.

The Daughter sent an email a couple of days ago.  I don’t know who wrote it,  I’ve  seen similar stories…but the lesson bares repeating.

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had
never failed a single student before,
but had once failed an entire class.

——————————————–

That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would
be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on
Obama’s plan”.

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so
no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied
little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had
studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free
ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D!
No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all
resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone
else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that
socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the
effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away,
no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.

Yep.