Free Republic

The Supreme Court will decide the constitutionality of a towering cross-shaped memorial to Maryland men who died in the First World War. The Supreme Court agreed in early November to hear the case in which the American Legion is asking the high court to reverse a 2017 appeals court ruling that the memorial violates the First Amendment’s prohibition on governments establishing religion. Overturning a lower court’s decision, the Fourth Circuit panel said the memorial, which stands on public land, is unconstitutional because it “excessively entangles the government in religion.” The case may be a gauge for the conservatism of the...

Memorial, the country oldest rights group, has held a 12-hour ceremony every year on 29 October for the past 11 years. Hundreds of people read out names of those killed during Stalin-era repressions at a memorial in Lubyanka Square, outside the headquarters of the current security service and its Stalin-era predecessors. Historians estimate about a million people perished in Stalin’s Terror, also known as the Great Purge, in the 1930s. The group said Moscow city authorities had refused permission this year for “The Return of Names” ceremony. “Today, 19 October, that is 10 days before the ceremony was due to...

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals want to build a 5-foot tombstone where lobsters may have died after a crash on Route 1 in Brunswick, Maine, last week. According to the Brunswick Police Department several of the crustaceans that a Cozy Harbor Seafood truck was carrying got crushed as a result of the rollover. [Snip] The organization sent a letter to the Maine Department of Transportation asking if it could create the roadside memorial where the lobsters lost their lives.

What started out as a single flag in tribute to his friend has taken on a life of its own for a Lewes businessman. On July 10, Dave Repass put up a blue, black and white flag, known as a Thin Blue Line flag, on the northbound side of Route 1 over the Nassau Bridge following the sudden death of his friend, Delaware State Police Master Cpl. William Matt.

On this day, 14 years ago, Ronald Reagan passed away from pneumonia complications exacerbating his end stage Alzheimer's Disease. This is a memorial post for a truly great conservative, who won the Cold War, and changed the landscape majorly.

Stand by for a torrent of slobbering stories about Robert F. Kennedy as the 50th anniversary of his assassination approaches Wednesday. The main speaker at the official ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery will be Bill Clinton. I kid you not - Bill Clinton! Look, of course it’s terrible that RFK was murdered at the age of 42, leaving behind all those kids and Ethel pregnant with the last of them. But since his passing, there’s been even more historical revisionism about Bobby than with almost any of the other liberal icons. So, as the gushing from his fawning biographers like...

HONOLULU — Damage to the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu was worse than expected and it will remain closed indefinitely, officials said. Boat transportation to the attraction was suspended May 6 after one of the vessel operators noticed a crack on the outside of the memorial, Hawaii News Now reported . Tourists were allowed to disembark at the memorial after crews completed interim repairs. But the cracks reappeared hours later, indicating a more serious issue.

A western central Texas community jumped in to help an area veterans group raise funds to restore a war memorial that mysteriously sustained thousands of dollars of damage in the past week. Breitbart Texas reported that four of 12 commemorative granite tablets, part of a larger memorial, were found in pieces on Sunday by Harold Stieber, president of the Central Texas Veterans Memorial Committee. He estimated the replacement tablets could cost more than $40,000. The Central Texas Veterans Memorial recognizes all U.S. war veterans in a dozen stone structures and 14 plaques but specifically pays homage to the 259 locals who...

A federal appeals court has ruled that a 40-foot cross-shaped Maryland monument honoring soldiers who died in World War I is unconstitutional, saying it violates the separation between church and state. The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the 92-year-old structure was in violation of the First Amendment because it is on public land at a busy intersection in Prince George's County and is maintained with government funds. The court's decision does not address whether the monument should be removed or modified.

A Virginia school district says that a Bible verse engraved on bench memorializing a deceased student must be removed because it is not legal. Charlotte County School Superintendent Nancy Leonard said that the school board determined that the engraving on the bench was illegal because it violated the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which states that the government cannot “establish” a state-sponsored religion. “We found that the memorial bench that we currently have is not legally compliant because of the Establishment Clause (in Constitution), because of the Bible verse,” Leonard told WAFF. The verse from Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do...

Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director, urged state and local governments to erase every symbol and every vestige of Confederate history immediately. “A fitting response to the deadly terror attack on anti-racist protesters in Charlottesville would be for officials in states and cities nationwide to immediately announce that every street, every school, every flag, and every public memorial honoring those who took up arms in defense of white supremacy and slavery will be removed or have its name changed to instead honor those who fought for civil rights,” Awad said in a statement to The Daily Caller. “Removal of these...

Lawmakers on Thursday gave final approval to the idea of a Global War on Terror memorial, clearing the path for what is expected to be a years-long process of designing and building a tribute to the latest generation of veterans. In wrap-up work before their summer recess, senators unanimously approved legislation that would allow planning of the memorial to begin immediately, instead of the normally mandated 10-year wait period after the end of a military conflict. Supporters have argued that because the ongoing “war on terror” is open-ended, it could take decades before an official end is declared. By then,...

In a move that’s a slap across the face of every patriotic American, the Southern Methodist University in Texas relocated its annual 9/11 memorial flag display from in front of the campus’ iconic Dallas Hall to a less visible area to avoid exposing the community to “triggering, harmful, or harassing” messages. The memorial is the work of the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) student group. Since 2015 YAF has organized the 9/11 Never Forget Project, which YAF Chairman Grant Wolf describes as “a memorial of 2,977 American flags in a visually stunning display that represents each of the 2,977 Americans...

50 years today July 29, 1967 the USS Forrestal Fire took place. This 2917 calendar lines up on the exact day.

This memorial of the USS Forrestal,CVA 59; it will be 50 years ago this July 29-Th; has actual pictures and the voice of Captain John K. Beling at the time of the fires. I'm Aman (Ski) out of NAS Sandford Florida Squardron RAHV-11 (Heavy 11). The Hymn played is, Pass Me Not Oh Gentle Savior, with mandolin and verse sung was covered by me, o7jimmy – (Revski).

Gov. Charlie Baker indicated he would support ridding Massachusetts...of its only such (Confederate) memorial. A modest stone marker was placed on Georges Island in Boston Harbor by the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1963. It commemorates the Confederate soldiers imprisoned in Fort Warren on the island during the Civil War (and lists the names of those who died as POWs).

If you’re looking for a textbook example of the Washington swamp Donald Trump vowed to drain, the Dwight D. Eisenhower National Memorial, designed by celebrity architect Frank Gehry and soon to be erected in the capital’s monumental core, has plenty to offer: the dubious memorial competition Gehry won, the incompetent sponsoring commission’s reliance on federal largesse rather than private donations, and pervasive official cluelessness about Gehry’s ill-conceived, very expensive, and very unpopular design. His over-scaled $150 million theme park is a self-indulgent travesty of a tribute to the D-Day commander and 34th president. To be situated across Independence Avenue from...

Just a reminder that this would be a great day to fly your flag.

As we remember our brothers and sisters who have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice so we can have Liberty, let us also remember those that history denies their due glory. How many know that the first man to die in the Revolutionary War was a black man named Crispus Attucks? Crispus Attucks was freed slave who had become a whaler for the merchant marines. Here is a poem written about Attucks by John Boyle O’Riley:

The new law attempts to preserve history by making it illegal to remove monuments that have been in place for more than 40 years. The Alabama Memorial Preservation Act of 2017, signed into law Wednesday by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R), protects historical Confederate monuments which have come under fire in recent weeks by Democratic politicians. The new legislation prohibits: The relocation, removal, alteration, renaming, or other disturbance of any architecturally significant building, memorial building, memorial street, or monument located on public property which has been in place for 40 or more years.