Monthly Archives: May 2021

Every headstone in cemeteries across our nation and around the globe tells a story.

The letters etched upon those stones are the names of mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, daughters and sons. Far too many lived short lives fighting and dying for the peace, freedom and opportunities we enjoy as Americans.

Whenever I walk through the sacred grounds of our national cemeteries, I pause and read the names aloud to ensure I never forget the ultimate sacrifice these patriots gave in defense of freedom.

On Memorial Day, my wish is that all Americans take the time to remember the sacrifices of these heroes by saying their names aloud. Saying the names of these men and women keeps their memory alive the memory of their service, commitment, dedication and love of country. It reminds their families that we continue to stand with them.

My most humbling career experiences have been the privilege of meeting our men and women serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, visiting and seeing firsthand the resilience of those wounded and recovering, and sharing my condolences and grief with military families when their loved ones came home in a flag-draped coffin. They arent just names. They are our families and friends, our neighbors and fellow citizens. These men and women have so many stories of bravery and valor to tell.

Wood National Cemetery in Milwaukee is the final resting place of four Civil War Medal of Honor recipients, Buffalo Soldiers and Michelle Witmer, the first woman from the Wisconsin National Guard killed in war in 60 years. She served in Iraq with her sisters, Charity and Rachel.

Army Private David Bennes is buried in San Antonio. He earned the Medal of Honor in World War I after he volunteered to cross a river to observe enemy positions and drowned on the return trip.

In 2006, Air Force Tech. Sgt. Alfred Hill, who was missing in action for 62 years, finally returned home and was laid to rest at the Fort Sill National Cemetery. He and eight crew members were onboard a B-24 bomber that disappeared on a mission during World War II.

Those who read the book We Were Soldiers Once and Young or saw the movie will recognize the name of Medal of Honor recipient Army Capt. Ed Too Tall Freeman, buried in the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery. A helicopter pilot who volunteered to fly food and supplies to soldiers fighting in Vietnams Ia Drang Valley under heavy enemy fire, Freemans bravery allowed hundreds to return home to their families.

And theres Jesse LeRoy Brown, who earned the Distinguished Flying Cross the first Black naval officer to complete the Navys basic flight training program and the first Black naval officer killed in the Korean War. He was killed trying to save Marines trapped at the Chosin Reservoir. His body was never recovered and his family was left without a grave to honor and remember him.

The Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial is the final resting place for 7,861 servicemen who died liberating Italy from the Nazis. Many more heroes from our wars rest in hallowed grounds around the world.

We cant lose sight of what Memorial Day means for our nation and families who continue to grieve the loss of a soldier, sailor, airman, Marine or Coast Guardsman.

For these Americans, Memorial Day may not be a day of celebration. It may be a deeply personal and somber day. Remember them in your prayers and recognize that we are free because of their sacrifices.

As our caring colleagues in the National Cemetery Administration maintain their solemn mission to watch over those no longer with us, we know many more veterans came home with wounds both visible and invisible. I promise that all of us in VA will selflessly serve those men and women who served and sacrificed so much for all of us.

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Say names of those who died in defense of freedom - Scranton Times-Tribune

In the classic 1938 journalism novel Scoop by Evelyn Waugh, reporters who arrive at a supposed African war zone find no conflict, then create one in a hysterical sendup of the media at the time.

When news hit this week that tennis star Naomi Osaka revealed on Instagram that she would not be meeting with reporters at the French Open that starts Sunday in Paris, I thought of Waughs masterpiece. Unless Osaka shifts her position, reporters wont get to ask her questions about the tournament, or about whether she will play in the Tokyo Olympics or if she thinks they should even occur amid the lingering pandemic.

Osaka, whose mother is Japanese and father is Haitian and who grew up in the U.S., plays under the Japanese flag and is a face for the already once suspended quadrennial games.

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How much freedom from media obligations should Naomi Osaka and other athletes get? - The Athletic

I grew up in inner-city Columbus, Ohio, and attended Northland High School, where fear and struggle were students primary motivations. When I look back, I realize just how unhealthy it was for me to understand that I would never want my own children to live in an environment like mine at the very time that I was living there. No one should have to live in a place where their friends are subject to being murdered, where flying bullets often mark their parties, or where the bullets that miss their bodies still puncture their understanding of their self-worth.

Most of us simply wanted to make it out of this situation. Some of us wanted desperately to change it from within. None of us ever really questioned why a situation filled with violence and suffering existed at all.

It is not a question I considered until I arrived at Harvard. For the first time, I was part of a community where the absence of a socioeconomic burden was possible. I often hung out with folks from privileged situations but endlessly found myself peeking over white picket fences, examining the variety of luxurious cadences and dispositions performed by these individuals. Predictably, I never found myself able to assimilate, for my heart was with my brothers and sisters back home. My father manually installed a white fence in our backyard when I was a boy. He knew it could not save me from the violence that would later rupture me and the people I loved. I was doomed, inevitably and immeasurably.

I soon realized that those luxurious dispositions displayed by my privileged peers did not symbolize freedom because they were on the opposite pole did not intrinsically mean they were in a fundamentally ideal situation. Instead, it was the freedom to exist without the aforementioned burdens perpetually looming in every bat of my eyes that I found most illuminating. I was able to wonder in ways I had never wondered, venture places that would remain distant potentialities for those back home.

This gnawed at me more than anything knowing and feeling the freedom that was out there and not being able to simply give it to the people I loved. It was because of this realization which came around the end of my time at Harvard that I ultimately decided to address the question that had been quietly waiting for me: Why do these conditions exist?

Such a simple question requires one to be both analytical of the world and ever-critical of the structures which create it. For oppressed peoples, it establishes, as Paulo Freire calls it, conscientization, or the process of learning and understanding ones oppression and subsequently learning how to fight it. However, no matter your age, background, or societal position, you are never too far from harsh realities to be critical of the forces at play.

For those who benefit from a repressive system, be brave enough to reckon with a system that imposes violence and perpetual suffering unto others. The questions are clear and ready to be asked (For example, why do Black and third-world peoples suffer while others do not? What must be done to liberate them?). We must do everything we can to solve them. Lives are, quite literally, at stake.

It took me wrestling with this question to realize that the conditions only reflect the social systems within which they exist. In the year since I graduated from Harvard, I have been to numerous public protests (at one of which I was detained), kneeled for the national anthem before my teams basketball games (as I now play for Ohio State University), and, most recently, started a book club with the goals of reading texts that are critical of oppressive structures and dynamics, and engaging in liberating discourse. All of these efforts were in the name of challenging and rejecting a system that has caused immense suffering for my loved ones and me. Yet, the reality of oppressive conditions is visible to all. It is up to each of us to change them.

Seth Towns 20 was a Sociology concentrator in Winthrop House and former Harvard men's basketball player.

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The Harvard Crimson The Freedom That Is Elsewhere | Opinion - Harvard Crimson

Yusef Salaam, shown above in 2019, reflects on his wrongful conviction in the memoir, Better, Not Bitter. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

Yusef Salaam, shown above in 2019, reflects on his wrongful conviction in the memoir, Better, Not Bitter.

In 1989, 15-year-old Yusef Salaam was one of five Black and Latino teenagers who were wrongly accused of assault and rape in the so-called Central Park jogger case.

At the time of his 1990 trial, Salaam, then out on bail, felt confident that the truth would come out and that he and the other teens would be proven innocent.

"I was on the phone with a friend of mine and I remember someone running up to me, [saying] 'They got the verdict! They got the verdict!' " Salaam says. "And I told the person, 'Hey, they got the verdict. I'll see you in a little while. I'll be right back. I'll be home.' And I didn't come back until seven years later."

Each of the boys, then known as the "Central Park Five," was convicted. It wasn't until 2002 well after Salaam had completed his nearly seven-year prison sentence that DNA evidence confirmed that they were all innocent. A serial rapist and murderer had acted alone in committing the crime.

"When the truth came out, that's when we got our lives back," Salaam says. "But for those of us who had five to 10 years prison sentences, we had done all of someone else's time. ... We will never know what our life would have been like had we not gone through this horrible experience."

Salaam now refers to himself, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise as the Exonerated Five. Their stories were told in a 2012 documentary by Ken Burns and in the 2019 Netflix series When They See Us, directed by Ava DuVernay.

In the memoir, Better, Not Bitter, Salaam reflects on his wrongful conviction and his efforts to forgive those responsible for his vilification.

"You have to be able to forgive so that you can cut yourself from the ball and chain that's holding you back," he says. "It has nothing to do with the individual who harmed you, but everything to do with yourself."

Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice, Yusef Salaam Grand Central Publishing hide caption

Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice, Yusef Salaam

On how the boys were forced to give false confessions

I remember when I was [at the precinct] with Korey [Wise] hearing him getting beat up in the next room. I remember hearing him yell out, "OK, OK, I'll tell you!" And he made, if I'm not mistaken, four completely different confessions, four completely different ones. And the one that he implicated me in, they played at my trial and all we wanted to do was go home. This was a nightmare. We were delirious with hunger. We were delirious, because time was passing and we didn't know what time it was, just a whole nightmare of the whole situation and I think what happened is, after a certain point, you break and in the breaking point, you say anything that will allow you to get out of that.

On the advice his mother gave him which led him to not initially agree to the police's narrative

[My mother] told me something that's very important. And I think that the thing that she told me is something that I tell people often. She said to me, "Stop talking to them." And then she said to me, "They need you to participate in whatever it is that they're trying to do. Do not participate. Refuse." And for me, it was one of the most powerful learning tools that I could ever imagine, because here I was on my own, being told to stand my ground and being told in many ways that it's on me. "I can't come into the room with you. I can't fight for you. You have to fight for yourself. But I need you to know that whatever you do, they're trying to get you to participate in your own destruction."

On being in danger in prison because of how high profile his case was

Salaam appears with Rev. Al Sharpton during his 1990 trial. Bettmann/Bettmann Archive hide caption

Salaam appears with Rev. Al Sharpton during his 1990 trial.

I think all throughout our case, there was a knowledge of who we were. It was very difficult for us to hide. I'm saying "hide," because we wanted to be anonymous, but we had been convicted of this heinous crime. We have been vilified in the media. Over 400 articles [were] written about us within the first few weeks. And our faces were on every single front page of every newspaper in New York City for a very, very long time. So by the time we got to prison, the inmates had already known who we were. ...

You're told the worst crime that you can go to prison for is rape. The only crime that trumps rape is child molestation. And then you feel all of the tension, all of the negative [energy] ... you feel that, and you're walking through that in these prisons and here are killers around you. Here are [rapists] around you. Here are child molesters around you, and they want justice. They want to do to you what you have been convicted of.

On his feelings toward the police and prosecutors who put him behind bars

The overwhelming feeling that I have towards the police and prosecutors is that they knew that we had not done this crime.

Yusef Salaam

The overwhelming feeling that I have towards the police and prosecutors is that they knew that we had not done this crime. They knew it, but yet they chose to move forward. They built their careers off of our backs, and the law of karma caught up to them. And they never imagined that they would have to contend with these crimes that they committed because these are crimes. They're supposed to be the upholders of law and they have things like prosecutorial immunity. But they were involved in prosecutorial misconduct. No one wants to be in a situation where the people at the highest level in life are the ones who are the most criminal. We want those people to be the most upstanding. They have to hold that truth in their minds and hearts as they move in the justice system because they're changing people's lives. ... The people who are supposed to uphold the law, it is criminal when they do the exact opposite of that.

On his healing journey

We've been able to make leaps and bounds in our healing, in our adjustments into society, but at the same time, it's still there lurking in the background. The awful experience that we should have never gone through is really always the cloud over our heads. But the cool thing about it is that we now know how to deal with those emotions. We now can say, "This is how you get through any prison that you may be going through," whether you're physically in bondage or not. Making the choices that are meaningful, taking the time to breathe, meditating, creating vision boards, all of those things are necessary.

They say the imagination is the precursor of what's to come, and so if you can imagine a future that is brighter than the one that you're growing through and I'm saying "growing through" on purpose, because when you get to that point, you realize that you're not just going through something, but that you're being prepared for greatness, that you need to know the lows in order to appreciate the highs in life. I think that when I look at my story, being able to look at it from the outside gives me the tremendous opportunity to describe in full what it is that I had gone through, and then going back in and being a participant in my growth and development is important because you have to marry those two things together. And it's that that causes you to step forward with tremendous hope in the future, with tremendous faith in the future, knowing that it can only get better and not get worse.

Sam Briger and Thea Chaloner produced and edited the audio of this interview. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Meghan Sullivan adapted it for the Web.

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Central Park 'Exonerated 5' Member Reflects On Freedom And Forgiveness - NPR

"Why all the fuss?"

That is how retired United States Army Colonel Ralph Puckett reacted when he learned he was to receive the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary bravery and effectiveness in combat during the Korean War. The modesty befits the man, and reflects his selflessness, a distinctive human virtue.

Memorial Day is a fitting time to honor him, along with the men and women in our military who gave their lives. This special day originated shortly after our Civil War as Decoration Day.

From the beginning, parades have been an important feature. From ancient times, surviving warriors have been viewed as closely associated with comrades who died.

Col. Puckett may not be a "household name" across America, but he is a legendary and inspirational figure within the U.S. Army. His extraordinary career highlights the strong dedication military service can develop in distinctive ways.

The Korean War began in late June 1950 when North Korean forces invaded South Korea. U.S. President Harry Truman immediately decided to support the United Nations effort to defeat the invasion, and military action would continue until President Dwight Eisenhower achieved an armistice in July 1953.

In late 1950, enormous numbers of the People's Liberation Army of China intervened. The offensive surprised UN commander General Douglas MacArthur and staff, and serious reversals followed.

This was the situation on the ground when young First Lt. Puckett, in command of the Eighth Army Ranger Company, was ordered to occupy Hill 205. They secured the strategically important high ground but were under heavy fire and cut off.

Puckett's leadership proved vital. He repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire in order to survey terrain and protect his men.

The Rangers held the hill against five massive human wave attacks. Puckett ultimately ordered a retreat from what had become an untenable position.

Badly wounded, he told his men to leave him. They refused to do so. For his actions in that battle, he received the Distinguished Service Cross, which has now been upgraded to the Medal of Honor.

During the Vietnam War, Puckett again served in combat in command. He displayed comparable courage and leadership.

On May 21, President Joe Biden awarded Col. Puckett the Medal of Honor at a ceremony at the White House. In attendance was President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, who was visiting Washington to meet with President Biden. This is the first time the leader of a foreign government has attended a Medal of Honor ceremony.

Holding the ceremony during President Moon's visit is admirable. That war forged the important, enduring alliance between our two peoples. The Korean War also transformed the Cold War to a broadly global conflict.

As a very young man, Moon's political activism led to arrest and imprisonment. The dictatorship of Park Chung-hee was merciless in punishing dissidence of any kind. Reflecting that experience, he decided to pursue a career as a human rights lawyer.

Moon also served in the Republic of Korea (South Korea) Army. He joined the Special Forces, and saw action in the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) along the 38th Parallel that divides North and South Korea.

South Korea maintained 50,000 troops in South Vietnam during our long war there. Memorial Day is an appropriate time to reflect on the importance of those close allies who aid us in war and in peace. It is a particularly important time to remember the sacrifices and actions of men and women like Col. Puckett whose determination and bravery continue to protect our freedoms.

To learn more about Ralph Puckett, see his memoir "Ranger: A Soldier's Life."

Arthur I. Cyr, acyr@carthage.edu, of Northbrook, is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of "After the Cold War."

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A day to remember alliances and the sacrifices that secure our freedom - Chicago Daily Herald

It will be pointed out and rightfully so that obligations to others is a nebulous concept. How much should we consider those around us before we decide how to act and what to believe? To what extent should we limit our own freedom in consideration of those around us? Is there a calculation we can do? A scale we can use? An app we can download?

In short, there isnt. But there are benchmarks that can serve as guides to belief. For instance, we can trust scientists about scientific matters and doctors about medical matters instead of relying only on ourselves and other nonexperts. But even these benchmarks have their limits (which we can capture with a single word: economists).

There are other areas in which the benchmarks are unclear. What, for instance, should we believe about the proper constraints on free speech? Here we must feel our way, using Gandhis dictum and recognizing the various others who are affected by our speech. And in feeling our way, we recognize that we often fail. Perhaps this is why believing in absolute freedom is so tempting if we follow that path, we are always right, which is easy.

One of the authors, in designing the TV show The Good Place, came to the conclusion that a key ethical concept is that of trying. (Which author this was the professional TV show runner or the other guy we will leave as an exercise for the reader.) We try to believe rightly about choices and actions that affect other people. Then, when we fail, we try to do better. Its not as easy a path, but its certainly a more compassionate one, and importantly a more human one.

This is what we think of as our ur-belief: Before we decide what to believe, we have to believe that other people matter. If we act with this obligation in mind and we fail to get it right, then we have to reconsider, learn more, aim to improve and try again. Our inevitable failures will mean more, and be more productive, if they are grounded in what we might simply call consideration for other people the notion that there are people around us who are affected, directly and indirectly, by so much of what we believe and say and do.

Conversely, if we act only out of a sense of unlimited personal freedom, our failures will mean nothing. The refusal to recognize that we have obligations to others and that our beliefs and our behavior should respond to that recognition, is one we allow ourselves at our peril.

Mike Schur is the former showrunner for the NBC series The Good Place. His book, How to Be Perfect, will be published next year. Todd May is serving as philosophical adviser for the book.

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Mike Schur and Todd May: What We Believe About Freedom - The New York Times

Kangana Ranaut, who was banned from Twitter earlier this month, has reacted to the social media platform's recent statement regarding their concerns over the threat to freedom of speech. The micro-blogging platform had issued a statement suggesting that the new IT rules have elements that inhibit free conversation.

Taking to her Instagram Stories, Kangana shared Twitter's statement and said, "Poor Twitter begging for freedom of speech, twitter the great, the unelected member of parliament, supreme justice of the world, keeper of moral compass of humanity and what is their basic qualifications or credentials to ask or forcefully acquire this power? Who are they?"

"Handful of druggies who can be bought and sold easily, everything has a price tag from followers to promotional tweets, these money greedy private businessmen and capitalists want to run nations, bully and control the governments? Really haven't we learnt from east India company?" she added.

On Thursday, Twitter had issued a statement that read: "Twitter is deeply committed to the people of India. Our service has proven vital for the public conversation and a source of support for people during the pandemic. To keep our service available, we will strive to comply with applicable law in India. But, just as we do around the world, we will continue to be strictly guided by principles of transparency, a commitment to empowering every voice on the service, and protecting freedom of expression and privacy under the rule of law."

"Right now, we are concerned by recent events regarding our employees in India and the potential threat to freedom of expression for the people we serve. We, alongside many in civil society in India and around the world, have concerns with regards to the use of intimidation tactics by the police in response to enforcement of our global Terms of Service, as well as with core elements of the new IT Rules," the spokesperson added.

Also Read: 'Radhe is not a great film at all': Salman Khan's film gets negative review from dad Salim Khan

Kangana was 'permanently suspended' on May 3 after she posted a series of tweets in reaction to the recent West Bengal assembly election results. A Twitter spokesperson had said her account was suspended 'for repeated violations of Twitter Rules specifically our Hateful Conduct policy and Abusive Behaviour policy.'

Soon after, Kangana turned towards the homegrown social media platform Koo while she frequently shares her opinion on Instagram as well.

PUBLISHED ON MAY 20, 2021 12:22 PM IST

UPDATED ON MAY 20, 2021 09:35 AM IST

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Kangana Ranaut mocks Twitter after it raises concerns of threat to freedom of speech: 'Who are they' - Hindustan Times