Breaking Their Silence (Mehren's title misleading in LATimes? You Decide)

Families of U.S. troops have long adhered to a clan code that prohibits speaking out against a war. Now some are going public over Iraq.

PHILADELPHIA — In Love Plaza, about 75 people mingled in bright sunshine, chatting noisily while one speaker after another droned on at a campaign rally. Vendors hawked T-shirts, and children frolicked in a fountain opposite ornate City Hall.

Then Celeste Zappala stepped onstage. Standing between columns of red, white and blue balloons, she held up the Purple Heart awarded posthumously to her oldest son. The plaza fell silent.

In calm, measured tones, Zappala talked about her opposition to the war in Iraq. She spoke with pride and tenderness about her son, Sherwood Baker, who was killed in April in Baghdad.

"Sherwood was a patriot," Zappala said. "He was brave and faithful and loyal. He believed in America, and he believed in democracy. And I made an oath to him not to be quiet, not to be cynical in my grief."

Before her son left for Iraq early this year, Zappala, 57, joined a group of military families who support the troops but oppose the war. Today, Military Families Speak Out has more than 1,700 member families across the country who participate in protests, appear on radio and television and confront public officials. By telling stories about their loved ones, they hope to sway hearts and minds and help bring an end to the war.

At Love Plaza, after Zappala finished a 15-minute speech that left much of the audience wiping its eyes, an Army veteran from the Vietnam era approached her.

Now some are going public..

With all due respect to the Zappalas on the loss of their son, the title infers the they have felt suppressed in speech regarding their son, Sherwood; however the Zappalas have been vocal through such media outlets as the NYTimes-letter from Celeste Zappala was published by The New York Times May 23; People's Weekly World Newspaper Online - ‘Mr. Bush, you’d have liked my brother’; Philadelphia Daily News | 05/06/2004 | Mr. Bush, you'd have liked my brother;The Citizens Voice Monday, May 31, 2004; AMY GOODMAN transcript May 13th, 2004 Democracy Now . The history of the Zappalas, a Foster Italian American Family, show this headline is false or misleading. ...Even before he lost his brother, Dante Zappala had not been quiet about a war that was pushed on the American public with fear, bluster and deceit — a war that has bogged down in ways that were so utterly predictable.

"...Zappala was a family of peaceniks that ended up with a son and brother who wore the uniform and marched off to Iraq to serve his country, even after Zappala was arrested in an antiwar protest in San Francisco last year writes Los Angeles Times Steve Lopez. Sunday, May 30, 2004 Condensed History of Zappala

Sgt. Sherwood Baker was killed in Iraq April 26 in an explosion in Baghdad. Baker was the first member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard to die in combat since 1945.

Elizabeth Mehren, Times Staff Writer seems to follow in Dan Rathers footsteps (see re: comment Beverly Cocco/Rather). To be fair the Zappala family did not write this article "Breaking Their Silence". Looks like the silence was broken months before Mehren wrote this article.

Again, mothers like Mildred McHugh, whose son is serving in Iraq was also mentioned in Mehren's "timely" piece.

"MILDRED MCHUGH, SON IS SERVING IN IRAQ: I just feel so let down by this administration," was quoted in CNN SUNDAY MORNING,Aired March 21, 2004 - 07:30ET-RUSH TRANSCRIPT

Have the Zappalas and McHugh been "prohibited from speaking out against a war"? History does not seem to show it as such.

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