Navy SEAL memorial dedicated over liberal protests

Fallen Navy SEAL, Navy Cross recipient, and hero Danny Dietz had a memorial erected in his honor in his hometown of Littleton, Colorado on the Fourth of July.

This was not, of course, an easy feat. Liberals were spitting mad when they found out about it because in the statue he was holding a gun.

A group of Littleton parents is opposing the design and location of a memorial to a fallen local Navy SEAL, Danny Dietz, who died in combat in Afghanistan two years ago.

They say the statue, depicting Dietz clutching an automatic rifle, glorifies violence. In Berry Park, it would be within blocks of three schools and two playgrounds.

"I don't think young children should be exposed to that in that way - unsupervised by their parents or any adults," said Emily Cassidy, one of the mothers.

Linda Cuesta, the parent of a child who was at Columbine High School during the deadly April 1999 shootings, said that memory "colors everything in my life," but she is sympathetic to the Dietz family.

"As much as it breaks my heart to do this, we have to weigh the effect of the statue in this particular place against the family's feelings," she said.

"Who wins here? It's a tough situation."

Dietz's father said the family is devastated by the uproar.

"It broke our hearts," said Dan Dietz, who still lives in the area. "My son was fighting for her freedom to do exactly what she is doing. She put my son in the same category as Columbine. How does she have the audacity to do that?"...

Blackfive has more information, along with the e-mail parents sent out to keep the statue from being erected:

Neighbors-

It has come to our attention that the southeast corner of Lowell and Berry (which is open-space land owned by the Left Bank Condominiums) is the proposed location for a memorial statue honoring a young Navy Seal. While our hearts go out to the family of this brave young man, we have serious concerns regarding the graphic and violent detail the statue portrays. As a community, we cannot allow the many young children in this area to be exposed to a larger than life-size grenade launching machine gun.

The City of Littleton is responsible for considering both location as well as audience when placing public art. This statue's proposed location is within a three-block radius of two elementary schools, a middle school and two parks, each with a playground. Clearly, the design of this sculpture was for an audience other than young children.

In light of our community's experience with the Columbine tragedy, and the clear message of non-violence that we teach in Littleton schools, what is our city thinking?

The statue's dedication is currently scheduled for July, if you share our concerns regarding its placement in this particular location, please contact Littleton City Manager Jim Woods at 303-795-3720 or email him at jwoods@littletongov.org.

Glorifies violence, huh? How about commemmorates a hero? How about serves as a reminder for the ultimate sacrifice that our soldiers make fighting for these idiots to disrespect the sacrifice he made?

Here is the "oh-so-offensive" memorial:



Yes... I can see it now. (This is where I would be rolling my eyes.)

You know, if you're concerned about your children seeing it, here's what you say. You point to the statue, and you say, "You see that memorial? That's after a hero. He was a soldier in the military who went overseas to fight to keep us free. You know how you can go to church every morning, and read whatever books you want, or watch whatever you want on TV? Well, in a lot of countries there are people that don't have those freedoms, and that man from that memorial died so that you could do all of these things."

But then, of course, that might instill a sense of patriotism and pride in country into their children, and we all know how liberals just cannot tolerate that.

Here's the picture I assume the memorial was based off of:



Danny Dietz was truly a hero, and he made the ultimate sacrifice. It's a shame the people in his hometown had to pervert that into something negative, rather than honoring his memory. Thankfully, the memorial was erected, and dedicated on the best possible day it could be: our nation's Independence Day.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his widow, his parents, and the rest of his family -- may God bring them comfort and love.

Fallen Son

This week, Marvel will release Fallen Son, the funeral of Captain America.

It's a funeral fit for a superhero. In the drizzling rain at Arlington National Cemetery, thousands of grieving patriots solemnly watch as the pallbearers — Iron Man, the Black Panther, Ben Grimm and Ms. Marvel — carry a casket draped with an American flag.

Yes, folks, Captain America is dead and buried in the latest issue of Marvel Comics' "Fallen Son," due on newsstands the morning after Independence Day. After 66 years of battling villains from Adolf Hitler to the Red Skull, the red, white and blue leader of the Avengers was felled by an assassin's bullet on the steps of a New York federal courthouse.

He was headed to court after refusing to sign the government's Superhero Registration Act, a move that would have revealed his true identity. A sniper who fired from a rooftop was captured as police and Captain America's military escort were left to cope with chaos in the streets.

With the story line so relevant to present-day politics, and the timing of the latest issue so precise, it's hard not to think the whole thing is one big slam on the government.

"Part of it grew out of the fact that we are a country that's at war, we are being perceived differently in the world," Loeb said. "He wears the flag and he is assassinated — it's impossible not to have it at least be a metaphor for the complications of present day."

Captain America, whose secret identity was Steve Rogers, was an early member of the pantheon of comic book heroes that began with Superman in the 1930s.

He landed on newsstands in March 1941, nine months before Pearl Harbor — delivering a punch to Hitler on the cover of his first issue, a sock-in-the-jaw reminder that there was a war on and the United States was not involved.

"The question is, how does the world continue without this hero?" he said. "If that story of his return gets told further down the line, great. But everyone's still been dealing with his loss.

"They aren't going to wake up and it's a dream, like it's some episode of 'Dallas.'"

It's old news by now that Marvel killed off Captain America -- especially sad in today's world. We saw Captain America fight in multiple enemies relevant to our world throughout the decades. He fought the Nazis, Hitler, and the Japanese during WWII, communism in the 50s, and destroys the anti-nationalist terrorist the Flag Snatcher.

I can just imagine if Captain America had fought terrorists and/or Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden in Iraq and Afghanistan -- CAIR would be suing Marvel, and every single media outlet, led by the NY Times, would be calling for a boycott of the comic book due to "discrimination" and "bigotry" and who knows what else.

What a different world we live in today, and the death of an iconic figure like Captain America shows that, especially when we need an American icon like Captain America today now, more than ever. It isn't a stretch to see the death of Captain America, a symbol of patriotism and love for country, as the death of -- or at least an attack on -- patriotism and love of country today.

This week we will see him buried, and who knows if he will come back again or not.

R.I.P., Charles Lindberg

A hero from the Greatest Generation has gone.

Charles W. Lindberg, one of the U.S. Marines who raised the first American flag over Iwo Jima during World War II, has died. He was 86.

Lindberg died Sunday at Fairview Southdale hospital in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina, said John Pose, director of the Morris Nilsen Funeral Home in Richfield, which is handling Lindberg's funeral.

Lindberg spent decades explaining that it was his patrol, not the one captured in the famous Associated Press photograph by Joe Rosenthal, that raised the first flag as U.S. forces fought to take the Japanese island.

In the late morning of Feb. 23, 1945, Lindberg fired his flame-thrower into enemy pillboxes at the base of Mount Suribachi and then joined five other Marines fighting their way to the top. He was awarded the Silver Star for bravery.

"Two of our men found this big, long pipe there," he said in an interview with The Associated Press in 2003. "We tied the flag to it, took it to the highest spot we could find and we raised it.

"Down below, the troops started to cheer, the ship's whistles went off, it was just something that you would never forget," he said. "It didn't last too long, because the enemy started coming out of the caves."

The moment was captured by Sgt. Lou Lowery, a photographer from the Marine Corps' Leatherneck magazine. It was the first time a foreign flag flew on Japanese soil, according to the book "Flags of Our Fathers," by James Bradley with Ron Powers. Bradley's father, Navy Corpsman John Bradley, was one of the men in the famous photo of the second flag-raising.

"We thought it would be a slaughterhouse up on Suribachi," Lindberg said in the book. "I still don't understand why we were not attacked."

Three of the men in the first raising never saw their photos. They were among the more than 6,800 U.S. servicemen killed in the five-week battle for the island.

By Lindberg's account, his commander ordered the first flag replaced and safeguarded because he worried someone would take it as a souvenir. Lindberg was back in combat when six men raised the second, larger flag about four hours later.

Here's goodbye to a true hero. Keep his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Rest easy, sleep well my brothers.
Know the line has held, your job is done.
Rest easy, sleep well.
Others have taken up where you fell,
the line has held.
Peace, peace, and farewell.

Today is Flag Day, so fly them proudly

Although I may not be able to, as Wal-Mart and Walgreens seem to have a ban on American flags.

It seems some people are unfamiliar with Flag Day, so to begin with, here is a nice summation of the holiday from Holiday Insights.com:

When : June 14th

Flag Day is a day for all Americans to celebrate and show respect for our flag, it's designers, and makers. Our flag is representative of our independence and our unity as a nation... one nation, under God, indivisible. Our flag has a proud and glorious history. It was at the lead of every battle fought by Americans. Many people have died protecting it. It even stands proudly on the surface of the moon.

As Americans, we have every right to be proud of our culture, our nation, and our flag. So raise the flag today and every day with pride!

So, when I got out of my screening of Fantastic Four (review to come later) at approximately 3:30 in the morning, I figured I'd stop by Wal-Mart and get a flag.

Yeah, I came home empty-handed. This is me not happy.

I walked around that store no less than three times. I looked in every single department. No flags.

So, on the way home, I passed a 24-hour Walgreens. Remembering how, around seemingly every holiday, Walgreens has practically their entire store filled with decorations and other celebratory items, I thought, "Hey, they'll have a flag, what with the 4th being right around the corner." Nope. Wrong again.

What strikes me as interesting is how both Walgreens and Wal-Mart, as I said, fill their stores to celebrate other holidays. New Years? Check. Halloween? Check. "Winter Holiday Season"? Check. But strangely enough, there was nothing in either of these two stores to celebrate the upcoming 4th of July holiday. Is this indicative of all Wal-Marts and Walgreens? No, but it is strange to say the least.

Why is it difficult to find an American flag... in America? It really shouldn't be.

I'll continue the search tomorrow, and in the meantime, make sure you fly your flags proudly. If I ever find one, I will be.

20th Anniversary of Ronald Reagan's most famous speech

20 years ago today, then-President Ronald Reagan spoke the now famous words which helped defeat communism and end the Cold War.

From The Reagan Foundation website, here is the official transcript of that speech.

Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate
West Berlin, Germany
June 12, 1987

This speech was delivered to the people of West Berlin, yet it was also audible on the East side of the Berlin wall.


Thank you very much.

Chancellor Kohl, Governing Mayor Diepgen, ladies and gentlemen: Twenty-four years ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, speaking to the people of this city and the world at the City Hall. Well, since then two other presidents have come, each in his turn, to Berlin. And today I, myself, make my second visit to your city.

We come to Berlin, we American presidents, because it's our duty to speak, in this place, of freedom. But I must confess, we're drawn here by other things as well: by the feeling of history in this city, more than 500 years older than our own nation; by the beauty of the Grunewald and the Tiergarten; most of all, by your courage and determination. Perhaps the composer Paul Lincke understood something about American presidents. You see, like so many presidents before me, I come here today because wherever I go, whatever I do: Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin. [I still have a suitcase in Berlin.]

Our gathering today is being broadcast throughout Western Europe and North America. I understand that it is being seen and heard as well in the East. To those listening throughout Eastern Europe, a special word: Although I cannot be with you, I address my remarks to you just as surely as to those standing here before me. For I join you, as I join your fellow countrymen in the West, in this firm, this unalterable belief: Es gibt nur ein Berlin. [There is only one Berlin.]

Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe. From the Baltic, south, those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers. Farther south, there may be no visible, no obvious wall. But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same--still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state. Yet it is here in Berlin where the wall emerges most clearly; here, cutting across your city, where the news photo and the television screen have imprinted this brutal division of a continent upon the mind of the world. Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German, separated from his fellow men. Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar.

President von Weizsacker has said, "The German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed." Today I say: As long as the gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind. Yet I do not come here to lament. For I find in Berlin a message of hope, even in the shadow of this wall, a message of triumph.

In this season of spring in 1945, the people of Berlin emerged from their air-raid shelters to find devastation. Thousands of miles away, the people of the United States reached out to help. And in 1947 Secretary of State--as you've been told--George Marshall announced the creation of what would become known as the Marshall Plan. Speaking precisely 40 years ago this month, he said: "Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos."

In the Reichstag a few moments ago, I saw a display commemorating this 40th anniversary of the Marshall Plan. I was struck by the sign on a burnt-out, gutted structure that was being rebuilt. I understand that Berliners of my own generation can remember seeing signs like it dotted throughout the western sectors of the city. The sign read simply: "The Marshall Plan is helping here to strengthen the free world." A strong, free world in the West, that dream became real. Japan rose from ruin to become an economic giant. Italy, France, Belgium--virtually every nation in Western Europe saw political and economic rebirth; the European Community was founded.

In West Germany and here in Berlin, there took place an economic miracle, the Wirtschaftswunder. Adenauer, Erhard, Reuter, and other leaders understood the practical importance of liberty--that just as truth can flourish only when the journalist is given freedom of speech, so prosperity can come about only when the farmer and businessman enjoy economic freedom. The German leaders reduced tariffs, expanded free trade, lowered taxes. From 1950 to 1960 alone, the standard of living in West Germany and Berlin doubled.

Where four decades ago there was rubble, today in West Berlin there is the greatest industrial output of any city in Germany--busy office blocks, fine homes and apartments, proud avenues, and the spreading lawns of parkland. Where a city's culture seemed to have been destroyed, today there are two great universities, orchestras and an opera, countless theaters, and museums. Where there was want, today there's abundance--food, clothing, automobiles--the wonderful goods of the Ku'damm. From devastation, from utter ruin, you Berliners have, in freedom, rebuilt a city that once again ranks as one of the greatest on earth. The Soviets may have had other plans. But my friends, there were a few things the Soviets didn't count on--Berliner Herz, Berliner Humor, ja, und Berliner Schnauze. [Berliner heart, Berliner humor, yes, and a Berliner Schnauze.]

In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: "We will bury you." But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind--too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor.

And now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand the importance of freedom. We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and openness. Some political prisoners have been released. Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control.

Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to strengthen the Soviet system without changing it? We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

I understand the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict this continent-- and I pledge to you my country's efforts to help overcome these burdens. To be sure, we in the West must resist Soviet expansion. So we must maintain defenses of unassailable strength. Yet we seek peace; so we must strive to reduce arms on both sides.

Beginning 10 years ago, the Soviets challenged the Western alliance with a grave new threat, hundreds of new and more deadly SS-20 nuclear missiles, capable of striking every capital in Europe. The Western alliance responded by committing itself to a counter-deployment unless the Soviets agreed to negotiate a better solution; namely, the elimination of such weapons on both sides. For many months, the Soviets refused to bargain in earnestness. As the alliance, in turn, prepared to go forward with its counter-deployment, there were difficult days--days of protests like those during my 1982 visit to this city--and the Soviets later walked away from the table.

But through it all, the alliance held firm. And I invite those who protested then-- I invite those who protest today--to mark this fact: Because we remained strong, the Soviets came back to the table. And because we remained strong, today we have within reach the possibility, not merely of limiting the growth of arms, but of eliminating, for the first time, an entire class of nuclear weapons from the face of the earth.

As I speak, NATO ministers are meeting in Iceland to review the progress of our proposals for eliminating these weapons. At the talks in Geneva, we have also proposed deep cuts in strategic offensive weapons. And the Western allies have likewise made far-reaching proposals to reduce the danger of conventional war and to place a total ban on chemical weapons.

While we pursue these arms reductions, I pledge to you that we will maintain the capacity to deter Soviet aggression at any level at which it might occur. And in cooperation with many of our allies, the United States is pursuing the Strategic Defense Initiative--research to base deterrence not on the threat of offensive retaliation, but on defenses that truly defend; on systems, in short, that will not target populations, but shield them. By these means we seek to increase the safety of Europe and all the world. But we must remember a crucial fact: East and West do not mistrust each other because we are armed; we are armed because we mistrust each other. And our differences are not about weapons but about liberty. When President Kennedy spoke at the City Hall those 24 years ago, freedom was encircled, Berlin was under siege. And today, despite all the pressures upon this city, Berlin stands secure in its liberty. And freedom itself is transforming the globe.

In the Philippines, in South and Central America, democracy has been given a rebirth. Throughout the Pacific, free markets are working miracle after miracle of economic growth. In the industrialized nations, a technological revolution is taking place--a revolution marked by rapid, dramatic advances in computers and telecommunications.

In Europe, only one nation and those it controls refuse to join the community of freedom. Yet in this age of redoubled economic growth, of information and innovation, the Soviet Union faces a choice: It must make fundamental changes, or it will become obsolete.

Today thus represents a moment of hope. We in the West stand ready to cooperate with the East to promote true openness, to break down barriers that separate people, to create a safe, freer world. And surely there is no better place than Berlin, the meeting place of East and West, to make a start. Free people of Berlin: Today, as in the past, the United States stands for the strict observance and full implementation of all parts of the Four Power Agreement of 1971. Let us use this occasion, the 750th anniversary of this city, to usher in a new era, to seek a still fuller, richer life for the Berlin of the future. Together, let us maintain and develop the ties between the Federal Republic and the Western sectors of Berlin, which is permitted by the 1971 agreement.

And I invite Mr. Gorbachev: Let us work to bring the Eastern and Western parts of the city closer together, so that all the inhabitants of all Berlin can enjoy the benefits that come with life in one of the great cities of the world.

To open Berlin still further to all Europe, East and West, let us expand the vital air access to this city, finding ways of making commercial air service to Berlin more convenient, more comfortable, and more economical. We look to the day when West Berlin can become one of the chief aviation hubs in all central Europe.

With our French and British partners, the United States is prepared to help bring international meetings to Berlin. It would be only fitting for Berlin to serve as the site of United Nations meetings, or world conferences on human rights and arms control or other issues that call for international cooperation.

There is no better way to establish hope for the future than to enlighten young minds, and we would be honored to sponsor summer youth exchanges, cultural events, and other programs for young Berliners from the East. Our French and British friends, I'm certain, will do the same. And it's my hope that an authority can be found in East Berlin to sponsor visits from young people of the Western sectors.

One final proposal, one close to my heart: Sport represents a source of enjoyment and ennoblement, and you may have noted that the Republic of Korea--South Korea--has offered to permit certain events of the 1988 Olympics to take place in the North. International sports competitions of all kinds could take place in both parts of this city. And what better way to demonstrate to the world the openness of this city than to offer in some future year to hold the Olympic games here in Berlin, East and West? In these four decades, as I have said, you Berliners have built a great city. You've done so in spite of threats--the Soviet attempts to impose the East-mark, the blockade. Today the city thrives in spite of the challenges implicit in the very presence of this wall. What keeps you here? Certainly there's a great deal to be said for your fortitude, for your defiant courage. But I believe there's something deeper, something that involves Berlin's whole look and feel and way of life--not mere sentiment. No one could live long in Berlin without being completely disabused of illusions. Something instead, that has seen the difficulties of life in Berlin but chose to accept them, that continues to build this good and proud city in contrast to a surrounding totalitarian presence that refuses to release human energies or aspirations. Something that speaks with a powerful voice of affirmation, that says yes to this city, yes to the future, yes to freedom. In a word, I would submit that what keeps you in Berlin is love--love both profound and abiding.

Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between East and West. The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront. Years ago, before the East Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure: the television tower at Alexander Platz. Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the tower's one major flaw, treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind. Yet even today when the sun strikes that sphere--that sphere that towers over all Berlin--the light makes the sign of the cross. There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed.

As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner: "This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality." Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.

And I would like, before I close, to say one word. I have read, and I have been questioned since I've been here about certain demonstrations against my coming. And I would like to say just one thing, and to those who demonstrate so. I wonder if they have ever asked themselves that if they should have the kind of government they apparently seek, no one would ever be able to do what they're doing again.

Thank you and God bless you all.

Remembering D-Day

The Greatest Generation's longest day -- a day which turned the tide against Hitler -- should always be remembered. The sacrifices of the heroes of that day ensured the freedom generations to come and the liberation of Europe. May we never forget.

A simple memorial

Over at Chuck Ziegenfuss' blog, he posted a Memorial Day entry about a simple memorial site that I found rather touching (and at the same time, infuriating):

I'm not that good a neighbor. I was even cutting anyone's lawn. I was cutting the knee-high grass in the divider strip. And no, I'm not that civic minded. I was doing was cutting the grass around a memorial site erected at the start of the war. it's not that much, a few flags stuck in the ground, a streamer or two and a message board. But it is a memorial.

To me, this simple memorial across the street has more meaning than all of the marble and granite memorials in Washington D. C., Arlington, Gettysburg, and every town square and post office/fire hall in the country. Those memorials all have meaning. A remembrance of was gone by, sacrifices made, fathers, brothers and sons lost for the cause of liberty. Those memorials stand in mute testimony of all we hold dear-- the values, lifestyle and freedom for which we will sacrifice our brightest and bravest.

But not across the street. Across the street is a simple memorial made by one man, a man whose only real connection to this fight is a cousin who works rebuilding Iraq. He's had the memorial of since the first day of the ground war, He's even had legal battles with neighbors who didn't appreciate what he was doing. Those neighbors accused him of creating an eyesore, (out of American flags!) Of not having "the right" to display the flags in the public's space, and of not asking permission from the landowner of the rental community he lives in. He fought them tooth and nail, and even though he received many letters of support, the landowners wrote him a letter telling him to either take down the memorial or face eviction. Eventually, he had to take the flags down. He said it was the saddest day in his life, and he cried the entire time he was doing it. In the end, a few of our state representatives became involved, and told him in no uncertain terms: "go ahead and keep the memorial off and let us know if you have any more problems."

I’m glad all this happened before I moved here or I would have a few less neighbors to sit around and b*tch. I would also, had I known sooner, have completely lined my yard with flags, covered the house in banners and bunting, and generally made the largest red-white-and-blue eye sore you've ever seen.

I'll never understand people who get "offended" by displays of the American flag. Maybe I'm delusional, but isn't this... well... America? Agree or disagree with the war or not, the proper and decent thing to do is keep your mouth shut and stand behind your troops. Obviously, no one has to. But again, it's just the decent thing to do. Be patriotic -- it ain't gonna kill ya! Our soldiers need our support -- they need to know that their country is standing behind them, more than I think some people know. Just imagine how it must feel to hear, as a soldier who is or has been fighting in Iraq, or Afghanistan, that a memorial with American flags is being forced to take down because it is an "eyesore". I mean, my God... how much more unpatriotic can you get?

And even if -- IF -- this was in "public space" in a neighborhood and he wasn't "allowed" to have it up, does it matter? Is it a fight that needs to be fought? Seriously now. What these neighbors should have done as good, principled, decent, proud, and patriotic Americans is follow his example and hang a few flags of their own. But no. It's an eyesore.

Chuck is an Army officer who fought in Iraq and was injured by an IED. He's undergone over 30 surgeries in, I believe, a little more than two years. And he's out there cutting the grass for memorial of a war he not only fought in, but was injured in -- and seriously so. Chuck, and the man he's speaking of who built the memorial to begin with, are true patriots. We should all follow their examples.

Make sure you read the whole story.