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Showing posts with label Memorial Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Memorial Day. Show all posts

28 May 2026

Donald Trump Jr. said Arlington National Cemetery visit reminded him of family's financial 'sacrifices' 28MAI26

 

THIS is just more proof of how shallow and no class drumpf / trump and his whole brood is. Every single one of them and those that voluntarily joined that evil group are a waste of flesh. I don't think any of them have any redeeming qualities, not one. This from Snopes.....

Donald Trump Jr. said Arlington National Cemetery visit reminded him of family's financial 'sacrifices'

The eldest Trump child made the statement in his 2019 book.

Published May 28, 2026

Claim:
Donald Trump Jr. said driving through Arlington National Cemetery reminded him of "all the sacrifices we'd have to make — giving up a huge chunk of our business and all international deals."

A rumor that the oldest child of U.S. President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., once referenced a visit to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia as inspiration for him to reflect on his family's financial sacrifices circulated online in May 2026.

Users on social media have spread the rumor for years, but it resurfaced in late May 2026 as Americans observed Memorial Day.  

Arlington National Cemetery's website describes the landmark as honoring "those who have served our nation. … This impressive landscape serves as a tribute to the service and sacrifice of every individual laid to rest within these hallowed grounds." 

According to the online rumor, Trump Jr. allegedly said, "As we drove past the rows of white grave markers … I also thought of … all the sacrifices we'd have to make — giving up a huge chunk of our business and all international deals." 

This quote is correctly attributed to Donald Trump Jr. He wrote those words in his 2019 book"Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us."

The full passage from the book read: 

Meanwhile, it also took two months for me to realize the enormity of what my father had accomplished, and the weight of the job that he'd won. It was the day before the inauguration, and we were driving into Arlington National Cemetery, where he was to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I rarely get emotional, if ever. I guess you'd call me hyper-rational, stoic. Yet, as we drove past the rows of white grave markers, in the gravity of the moment, I had a deep sense of the importance of the presidency and a love of our country. I was never prouder of my father than when I watched as he stood before the tomb, his hand over his heart, while the Army bugler played "Taps."

In that moment, I also thought of all the attacks we'd already suffered as a family, and about all the sacrifices we'd have to make to help my father succeed — voluntarily giving up a huge chunk of our business and all international deals to avoid the appearance that we were "profiting off the office."

We're not talking about business with any foreign government agencies. This was based on the idea that we might be taken advantage of by a private business that would then have leverage on us. First of all, I don't think Trump Org has ever gotten duped by anyone and, second, the chances of something like that even being attempted are pretty remote. Frankly, it was a big sacrifice, costing us millions and millions of dollars annually, a huge book of business that I had personally built.

But it was a sacrifice we were more than happy and willing to make. Of course, we didn't get any credit whatsoever from the mainstream media, which now does not surprise me at all.

 




Political commentators and veterans criticized Trump's comments at the time of the book's publication. 

Vanity Fair ran an opinion piece with the headline "Donald Trump Jr. Thinks Not Doing Foreign Deals is the Same as Dying in Battle." The BBC reported: "Arizona Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego, who fought in Iraq, responded on Twitter: 'Eight men I served with are buried in Section 60 of Arlington' … 'I visit them monthly. Even if Donald Jr lived a 1,000 years, he will never even get close to being as good and honourable as they were.'" 

Salon's managing editor wrote that the book "finds the son of the most powerful man in the world complaining that his family is the victim of unfair attacks. In one passage, Don Jr. refutes critics who have called his father 'racist' by pointing out that Trump allowed him and Eric to play with Michael Jackson as children and let him go on vacation with former NFL star Herschel Walker."

25 May 2026

UPDATE: ‘Ode for Memorial Day’ & VIDEO U.S. Air Force Band bugler performs 'Taps' at Culpeper National Cemetery 25MAI26

 

In Arlington National Cemetery last week. Rod Lamkey, Jr./Associated Press (18-24 May 2026)

 Not only should we take time to remember and give thanks for those who sacrificed their lives for the rest of us, we should also give thanks for ALL who have served and are serving to defend our democratic Republic. Telling a serviceperson 'Thank you for your service' is not enough. Our veterans should not have to depend on charities for the help and support they need after serving in the US Military. We should all be e mailing our representatives and senators several times a year telling them before our government allocates money for space missions to the Moon and Mars, before they cut billions from the taxes of  American billionaires and multi-millionaires, before they boost the profit margins of the military-industrial complex by paying without question the over budget charges on weapons and ammunition contracts they need to fully budget for the programs and services our veterans honorably discharged after 20 years of service or honorably discharged after serving in combat need. They should not have to depend on any veteran's charity for medical home care, housing, transportation and food. That and remembering to vote is how we can best thank and show our appreciation to the US Military and our veterans. This from the New York Times.....

It’s Memorial Day. The United States and Iran appear to be close to a deal to end the war.

I’m going to start, though, with a poem written by Paul Laurence Dunbar and published in 1896. It’s about the Civil War, but the words elegize all those who gave their lives in service to the United States. It opens in the aftermath of war, then casts back to record its bloody, immeasurable cost. The peace that follows brings flowers of “glory eternal,” and Dunbar pays tribute to those who died for freedom, “with the flag flashing high in the sun.”

Author Headshot

By Sam Sifton

26 May 2026

‘Ode for Memorial Day’

Done are the toils and the wearisome marches,
Done is the summons of bugle and drum.
Softly and sweetly the sky overarches,
Shelt’ring a land where Rebellion is dumb.
Dark were the days of the country’s derangement,
Sad were the hours when the conflict was on,
But through the gloom of fraternal estrangement
God sent his light, and we welcome the dawn.
O’er the expanse of our mighty dominions,
Sweeping away to the uttermost parts,
Peace, the wide-flying, on untiring pinions,
Bringeth her message of joy to our hearts.

Ah, but this joy which our minds cannot measure,
What did it cost for our fathers to gain!
Bought at the price of the heart’s dearest treasure,
Born out of travail and sorrow and pain;
Born in the battle where fleet Death was flying,
Slaying with sabre-stroke bloody and fell;
Born where the heroes and martyrs were dying,
Torn by the fury of bullet and shell.
Ah, but the day is past; silent the rattle,
And the confusion that followed the fight.
Peace to the heroes who died in the battle,
Martyrs to truth and the crowning of Right!

Out of the blood of a conflict fraternal,
Out of the dust and dimness of death,
Burst into blossoms of glory eternal
Flowers that sweeten the world with the breath.
Flowers of charity, peace, and devotion
Bloom in the hearts that are empty of strife;
Love that is boundless and broad as the ocean
Leaps into beauty and fullness of life.
So, with the singing of paeans and chorals,
And with the flag flashing high in the sun,
Place on the graves of our heroes the laurels
Which their unfaltering valor has won!




VERSE AND VOICE FROM SOJOURNERS 22MAI26

 

29 May 2018

The Memorial Day history forgot: The Martyrs of the Race Course & Is the Civil War the Revolution We Like to Forget? 28MAI18 &

Union Soldiers cemetery, "Martyrs of the Race course," Charleston, S.C.
Union Soldiers cemetery, "Martyrs of the Race course," Charleston, S.C

THIS is a moving reminder of what all Americans owe to those who made the ultimate sacrifice and gave their lives in the creation of the American Republic and the defense of our Democracy. My civil liberties, civil rights, human rights are guaranteed by the blood shed by these men and women of various races and creeds over the 241 years of our nation's history, and I am extremely grateful, so very thankful. God Bless the families of those who have died serving and protecting our great nation and those who are serving now and their families. From DailyKos.....

A pencil drawing and a grainy photo in the Library of Congress are all that is left of the cemetery where 257 Union soldiers were buried after the Civil War on what had been a race course in Charleston, South Carolina.  
Nor has much been written about the memorial celebration held by more than 10,000 mostly newly freed blacks, which was one of the first, if not the first memorial held for those who fought to end slavery.
Civil War historian David Blight describes the event:
War kills people and destroys human creation; but as though mocking war's devastation, flowers inevitably bloom through its ruins. After a long siege, a prolonged bombardment for months from all around the harbor, and numerous fires, the beautiful port city of Charleston, South Carolina, where the war had begun in April, 1861, lay in ruin by the spring of 1865. The city was largely abandoned by white residents by late February. Among the first troops to enter and march up Meeting Street singing liberation songs was the Twenty First U. S. Colored Infantry; their commander accepted the formal surrender of the city.
Thousands of black Charlestonians, most former slaves, remained in the city and conducted a series of commemorations to declare their sense of the meaning of the war. The largest of these events, and unknown until some extraordinary luck in my recent research, took place on May 1, 1865. During the final year of the war, the Confederates had converted the planters' horse track, the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club, into an outdoor prison. Union soldiers were kept in horrible conditions in the interior of the track; at least 257 died of exposure and disease and were hastily buried in a mass grave behind the grandstand. Some twenty-eight black workmen went to the site, re-buried the Union dead properly, and built a high fence around the cemetery. They whitewashed the fence and built an archway over an entrance on which they inscribed the words, "Martyrs of the Race Course."
This had to have been an amazing scene:
Then, black Charlestonians in cooperation with white missionaries and teachers, staged an unforgettable parade of 10,000 people on the slaveholders' race course. The symbolic power of the low-country planter aristocracy's horse track (where they had displayed their wealth, leisure, and influence) was not lost on the freedpeople. A New York Tribune correspondent witnessed the event, describing "a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before."
Naval chaplain Padre Steve, in a post about that Memorial Day, recounts what happened to the cemetery:
The “Martyrs of the Racecourse” cemetery is no longer there. The site is now a park honoring Confederate General and the White Supremacist “Redeemer Governor” of South Carolina Wade Hampton. An oval track remains in the park and is used by the local population and cadets from the Citadel to run on. The Union dead who had been so beautifully honored by the Black population were moved to the National Cemetery at Beaufort South Carolina in the 1880s and the event conveniently erased from memory. Had not historian David Blight found the documentation we probably still would not know of this touching act which so honored those that fought the battles that won their freedom.
The African American population of Charleston who understood the bonds of slavery and oppression, the tyranny of prejudice in which they only counted as 3/5ths of a person and saw the suffering of those that were taken prisoner while attempting to liberate them stand as an example for us today.  Within little more than a decade they would be subject to Jim Crow and again treated by many whites as something less than human.  The struggle of them and their descendants against the tyranny of racial prejudice, discrimination and violence over the next 100 years would finally bear fruit in the Civil Rights movement whose leaders, like the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. would also become martyrs.
For those of you who have an interest in American history, I'd suggest strongly that you add David Blight's book, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, to your shelf:
Book Cover, Race and Reunion, by historian David Blight
Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, by David W. Blight
No historical event has left as deep an imprint on America’s collective memory as the Civil War. In the war’s aftermath, Americans had to embrace and cast off a traumatic past. David Blight explores the perilous path of remembering and forgetting, and reveals its tragic costs to race relations and America’s national reunion.
In 1865, confronted with a ravaged landscape and a torn America, the North and South began a slow and painful process of reconciliation. The ensuing decades witnessed the triumph of a culture of reunion, which downplayed sectional division and emphasized the heroics of a battle between noble men of the Blue and the Gray. Nearly lost in national culture were the moral crusades over slavery that ignited the war, the presence and participation of African Americans throughout the war, and the promise of emancipation that emerged from the war. Race and Reunion is a history of how the unity of white America was purchased through the increasing segregation of black and white memory of the Civil War. Blight delves deeply into the shifting meanings of death and sacrifice, Reconstruction, the romanticized South of literature, soldiers’ reminiscences of battle, the idea of the Lost Cause, and the ritual of Memorial Day. He resurrects the variety of African-American voices and memories of the war and the efforts to preserve the emancipationist legacy in the midst of a culture built on its denial.
Eric Foner wrote:
In ''Race and Reunion,'' David W. Blight demonstrates that as soon as the guns fell silent, debate over how to remember the Civil War began. In recent years, the study of historical memory has become something of a scholarly cottage industry. Rather than being straightforward and unproblematic, it is ''constructed,'' battled over and in many ways political. Moreover, forgetting some aspects of the past is as much a part of historical understanding as remembering others. Blight's study of how Americans remembered the Civil War in the 50 years after Appomattox exemplifies these themes. It is the most comprehensive and insightful study of the memory of the Civil War yet to appear.
Blight touches on a wide range of subjects, including how political battles over Reconstruction contributed to conflicting attitudes toward the war's legacy, the origins of Memorial Day and the rise of the ''reminiscence industry,'' through which published memoirs by former soldiers helped lay the groundwork for sectional reconciliation. He gives black Americans a voice they are often denied in works on memory, scouring the black press for accounts of Emancipation celebrations and articles about the war's meaning. As his title suggests, Blight, who teaches history and black studies at Amherst College, believes that how we think about the Civil War has everything to do with how we think about race and its history in American life.
Blight's work on this period of history can also be found in The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture in a chapter entitled "Decoration Days: The Origins of Memorial Day in North and South."
In a footnote, he points out:
8. New York Tribune, May 13, 1865; Charleston Daily Courier, May 2, 1865. I encountered evidence of this first Memorial Day observance in "First Decoration Day," Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. This handwritten description of the parades around the Race Course is undoubtedly based on the article by the New York Tribune correspondent named Berwick, whose name is mentioned in the description. The "First Decoration Day" author, however, misdates the Tribune articles. Other mentions of the May 1, 1865, event at the Charleston Race Course include Paul H. Buck, The Road to Reunion, 1865–1900 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1937). Buck misdates the event as May 30, 1865, does not mention the Race Course, gives James Redpath full credit for creating the event, and relegates the former slaves' role to "black hands "strewing flowers" which knew only that the dead they were honoring had raised them from a condition of servitude" (120–21). Whitelaw Reid visited the cemetery in Charleston founded on that first Decoration Day, making special mention of the archway and its words in his account of his travels through the conquered South: "Sympathizing hands have cleared away the weeds, and placed over the entrance an inscription that must bring shame to the cheek of every Southern man who passes: 'The Martyrs of the Race Course.'" Whitelaw Reid, After the War: A Tour of the Southern States, 1865–1866 (1866; reprint, New York: Harper and Row, 1965).

David Blight on the Civil War in American Memory, Part 1


 I take time out today to remember my own family members who fought in that war, even though this is a day of remembrance for those who died. Thankfully, my black enslaved ancestor Dennis Weaver was not killed, though he had a terrible time getting his pension. I wrote about him in Ode to colored soldier whose name I bear. My white second great-grandfather, James Bratt, also fought for the union, in the 6th Independent Battery, Wisconsin Light Artillery, and survived. What is important to note, when remembering those blacks who served, is that many of them died:
By the end of the Civil War, roughly 179,000 black men (10% of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and another 19,000 served in the Navy. Nearly 40,000 black soldiers died over the course of the war—30,000 of infection or disease. Black soldiers served in artillery and infantry and performed all noncombat support functions that sustain an army, as well. Black carpenters, chaplains, cooks, guards, laborers, nurses, scouts, spies, steamboat pilots, surgeons, and teamsters also contributed to the war cause. There were nearly 80 black commissioned officers. Black women, who could not formally join the Army, nonetheless served as nurses, spies, and scouts, the most famous being Harriet Tubman (photo citation: 200-HN-PIO-1), who scouted for the 2d South Carolina Volunteers.
In “Victors not Victims,” Hari Jones, assistant director and curator of the African American Civil War Memorial Freedom Foundation and Museum, talks about the origins and importance of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) contribution to the American Civil War:
On September 27, 1862, the first regiment to become a United States Colored Troops (USCT) regiment was officially brought into the Union army. All the captains and lieutenants in this Louisiana regiment were men of African descent. The regiment was immediately assigned combat duties, and it captured Donaldsonville, Louisiana on October 27, 1862. Before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, two more African descent regiments from Kansas and South Carolina would demonstrate their prowess in combat.
After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863, the War Department publicly authorized the recruiting of African Americans. The first regiment raised with such authority was the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. (Leading many to report that it was the first African descent regiment.) By the end of 1863, General Ulysses S. Grant viewed the African descent population armed with the Proclamation as a “powerful ally.”
African Americans fought in every major campaign and battle during the last two years of the war earning twenty-five Medals of Honor. USCT regiments captured Charleston, the Cradle of Secession, and Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy. Lincoln recognized their contributions. He declared, “Without the military help of the black freedmen, the war against the South could not have been won.” And without the Emancipation Proclamation, these soldiers and sailors would have had little reason to fight for the Union.
If you visit Washington, D.C., be sure to check out the museum:
The mission of the African American Civil War Museum is to preserve and tell the stories of the United States Colored Troops and African American involvement in the American Civil War. We utilize a rich collection of primary resources, educational programming and technology to create a meaningful learning experience focused on this pivotal time in American history.

Is the Civil War the Revolution We Like to Forget?


24 May 2014

SOJOURNERS: Vincent Harding: In Our Cloud of Witnesses 23MAI14

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Vincent Harding: In Our Cloud of Witnesses




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Vincent Harding died on Monday. One of my most important and dearest mentors is gone; there are countless other people across America — indeed, around the world — who are feeling the same as me.
But he really hasn’t gone; his memory and presence will continue on with us in a “cloud of witnesses,” which is the most important thing Vincent ever taught me.
At the Illiff School of Theology in Denver — the last place he worked and taught — Vincent’s title was “Professor Emeritus of Religion and Social Transformation.” That was apt for someone who spent his life teaching and showing how faith was meant to transform the world, beginning with our own lives.
The first time I met Vincent Harding was at a talk he gave at Eastern Mennonite University titled something like “The People Around Martin Luther King Jr.” We expected to hear about all the famous civil rights leaders from the movement. Instead, he spoke of those who had gone before, often many years before King, who had shaped, inspired, and sustained him like a family tree, a community of faith, or “a cloud of witnesses.”
This historian of the civil rights movement, this respected author, this professor who was also a practitioner, this friend and even speechwriter for Martin Luther King Jr. (including his remarkable and historic speech at Riverside Church against the War in Vietnam), this man, and his beloved late wife Rosemarie, were part of the inner circle of the southern freedom movement. ...
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE.
Jim Wallis is president of Sojourners. His book, The (Un)Common Good: How the Gospel Brings Hope to a World Divided, the updated and revised paperback version of On God’s Side, will be released this spring. Follow Jim on Twitter: @JimWallis.





ON THE GOD'S POLITICS BLOG
View the latest articles from the God's Politics blog »

Stand by Me: Memorial Day and the Healing of Souls
by Mary Hinkle Shore
If you have to reassure people that you’re not abandoning them, it may be because they feel you slipping away. In John 14, Jesus is responding to the anxiety of those he loves. “I will not leave you orphaned,” he says, but it is not clear how he will keep that promise. We rarely think of what happened to Jesus as an experience of combat, but the story of his arrest includes soldiers, weapons, and at least momentary hand-to-hand combat as Peter draws a sword to slice off the ear of one of those sent to arrest Jesus.
Defeating Satan at Harvard
by Adam Ericksen
How do you defeat Satan? That was the question the University of Harvard had to answer last week when the Harvard Extension School’s Cultural Studies Club planned a satanic “Black Mass” at the university. The Harvard community, led by Harvard president Drew Faust, was outraged by the Black Mass. Although Faust was offended by the planned event, she defended the right of the Cultural Studies Club to proceed with the black mass.
Mandatory Minimums: How Long Does it Take to Learn Your Lesson?
by Kara Gotsch
Before selling illegal drugs, Dejarion Echols worked several years for a youth correctional agency and a psychiatric residential treatment facility for teenagers. He decided to pursue a college education but couldn’t afford to be a full-time student. Desperate to make money, the unemployed, 23-year-old, engaged father of two sold crack cocaine for six months in 2004. Any chance Dejarion had for a meaningful, productive life quickly ended. On a tip, police searched his home, found 44 grams of crack cocaine, $5,700, and an unloaded rifle.
To the Dying Church: Pass the Thread?
by Joe Kay
It’s interesting how we tend to think of birth and death as opposites, two bookends with life in the middle. But we also know from experience that birth and death really are two different words for the same thing. They involve change, a moving from one phase of life to another. Birth and death and rebirth are parts of the very fabric of life. This moment, countless cells inside our bodies are dying and being replaced by new ones just like them.
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28 May 2010

HONOR THE WARRIOR, NOT THE WAR from IRAQ VETERENS AGAINST THE WAR 28MAI10

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On this Memorial Day, we honor the thousands of soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civilians who have died in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  We also remember that the war lives on in soldiers, even after they leave the battlefield, and war lives on in the lives of those civilians who survive.  The costs of these wars will impact families and communities for generations.

We mourn the lives of John Thomas "J.T." White of IVAW's Ohio chapter, and Lisa Morris, member of the Fort Hood chapter.  Both died this year after surviving tours of duty in Iraq.  Our hearts are with their families and friends.  Our work to end the occupations continues in their spirit.


     R.I.P. Lisa Morris 6/09/1981 - 5/26/2010
Take a moment this Memorial Day to light a candle, say a prayer, or have a minute of silent reflection on the costs of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Re-commit yourself to working toward their end.

Here are things you can do:

  • Have a sit-down with any veteran you know.  Ask them how they are doing, learn about their experience, and listen.  Find out if they need any help (counseling services, discharge issues, educational access) and connect them to appropriate services.  See if they are connected with any veterans' groups or might want to connect with other vets in IVAW.
  • Connect with a local IVAW chapter in your area.  Meet with chapter leaders for coffee or dinner to learn what their local needs are and see how you might plug in.  What can you do to help build an IVAW chapter in your area?  Contact an IVAW Field Organizer to get connected to a chapter in your region: Aaron Hughes (Central and Midwest) aarhughes@ivaw.org, Chantelle Bateman (Northeast) chantellebateman@ivaw.org, Joe Callan (Southwest and West Coast) zkjcallan@ivaw.org, Jason Hurd (Southeast and Deep South) jehurd@gmail.com.
  • Host an event to watch IVAW's Winter Soldier testimony footage, start a Winter Soldier book reading group, or use Winter Soldier in your classroom.  Footage is available online at www.ivaw.org/wintersoldier.
  • Help keep the loss of life, the number of Killed In Action Wounded In Action, and civilian deaths in the headlines of your local news by writing letters-to-the-editor, petitioning your local radio station to acknowledge the dead and wounded on a regular basis, or sending  blurbs to your local community papers.
  • Volunteer with the GI Rights Hotline 877-447-4487 www.girightshotline.org and/or get GI Rights cards to pass out to GIs and Veterans by emailing: haber.jim@gmail.com.
  • Make your town or city a sanctuary for war resisters (AWOL soldiers).  Learn about the efforts of others to do this: http://open.salon.com/blog/washingtonpeacecenter/2010/04/05/keeping_gis_safe
  • Ask any mental health counselors or alternative health practitioners (massage therapists, acupuncturists, Reiki healers, etc.) to provide free services for veterans.  Hans Buwalda, VVAW counselor, is developing a national network of providers, so add to her list by contacting her at 773-370-4789 info@storiesandart.com.
  • Make a donation to IVAW.  Any amount helps.
In Solidarity,

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