Very well said dimmer-rats stealvotes. Great user name too. :^)
Posted on 10/29/2004 12:26:28 PM PDT by Pokey78
Canton, Ohio
ON MAY 5, 2004, Peggy Buryj, got the worst news a mother can get. Her son, Jesse, had been killed in Iraq. Jesse was manning the turret of a Humvee at a checkpoint in Karbala, south of Baghdad, when he noticed a dump truck racing towards his vehicle. Despite warnings, the driver did not stop. Jesse fired more than 400 rounds at the truck, killing the driver. But the truck didn't stop. It rammed his Humvee, tipping it over. Jesse suffered massive internal injuries and later died on the operating table.
Jesse's funeral got significant media attention in Canton. The military told Mrs. Buryj (pronounced "boo-dee") that her son's action saved the lives of at least three soldiers. "My son was a big hero in these parts," she says. "Canton really turned out for my son's funeral."
Six weeks later, Peggy Buryj claims that she received a phone call from a representative of John Kerry's presidential campaign. The caller identified herself as "Linda" and asked Mrs. Buryj, a registered Democrat, if she would appear at a Canton rally for John Kerry. Buryj agreed, but with a condition. She wanted to ask Kerry one question: "Why did you vote against the $87 billion for support troops in Iraq?"
"And I wanted to ask him--because I never hear journalists ask him, or anybody ask him--what was his reasoning for voting down the money?"
Buryj understood that her request was politically sensitive. So she told the Kerry campaign that she was willing to ask Kerry in
"They were inviting me because of my son," she says. "You know, they were using me for their benefit, you know? Local hero's mother, you know?" Buryj notes that the Kerry campaign did not invite the Rameys, parents of Staff Sft. Richard Ramey, who died in Iraq February 8, 2004. "They were Republicans," she says. "I'm a Democrat."
Nevertheless, she wanted to attend the rally. "I wanted to go. I just wanted an answer to my question."
She never heard back from the campaign.
A month later, Buryj received a call from the Bush campaign. President Bush wanted to meet her, in private, along with the families of two other fallen soldiers from Stark County. There would be no reporters in the room. She was not asked if she supported the president.
Bush spoke to a rally of 5,000 at the Canton Memorial Civic Center on July 31. Afterwards, he met for 20 minutes with Buryj, the Rameys and the family of Sgt. Michael Barkey, who had been killed in Iraq on July 7. Buryj says she cried when she saw Bush. "He cried on my shoulder as much as I cried on his."
I called Peggy Buryj after reading about the episode in a letter to the editor published Friday in the Canton Repository. The letter was written by Bob Ackerman, the father of a soldier now in Iraq who has become a close friend of the Buryj family. I asked Buryj the obvious question: Why go public with this story now, so soon before the election. "I didn't go the press about it," she says. "Bob Ackerman asked me if I would mind if he told the story. I didn't mind." I have no way of independently verifying Buryj's story. The parents of fellow Canton-area soldiers support her account. But the Kerry campaign strongly disputes it--suggesting she is lying on behalf of President Bush. "There is no evidence anyone from the Kerry campaign ever called her," said Jennifer Palmieri. I asked Palmieri if she had knowledge of a woman named "Linda" from the Kerry-Edwards office in Canton. Her response was immediate: "There is no one with the campaign named Linda."
Buryj spoke in halting phrases as she tried to articulate why, exactly, she wanted to speak with Kerry. "Basically, because I'm struggling with . . . why would he? . . . To me it was . . . As a military mother . . . Why? Why? What good reason could he have for voting against that money? There is no reason in my mind for him to vote down that money. And I will never understand that."
I asked if Kerry could have said anything that would have helped her understand his vote.
"I don't know. Maybe, if he would have answered the question. He voted for the okay to go to war. And then he voted down the money. As a military mother, you don't know how that offends me. That just offends me to the quick. And he's running for president. He wants to be our leader. He wants to be commander-in-chief. I think that's a fair question. I don't expect to get special treatment. But they called me. They called
She continued: "When John Kerry says wrong war, wrong time wrong place--you don't know how that cuts me to the quick. That's like saying my son died for nothing. That to me is just a slap in the face. I talk to several military mothers, you don't know how many, and that hurts us. That hurts us."
Buryj is not angry at Kerry. It is possible, she speculates, that her request for an answer to her question never got beyond the Kerry campaign's Ohio staff. "In all fairness to John Kerry, it might not ever have gotten back to him." Nevertheless, she is disappointed.
And she's still waiting for an answer from the Kerry campaign.
"They have my number. They've called it before."
That really says it all about the difference between the man and the mouse.
Without knowing me directly, this fine young man die for me and my family, in a war we must win against fanatics who want to kill us all, democrat or republican. I am grateful to this woman for raising such a fine young man and pray God's Grace be upon her in her grief: Thank you, m'Lady, in the name of your courageous son ... and know this, m'Lady, the tears on my cheeks are ones of appreciation more than sadness.
If she was going to switch her vote to Bush was a very obvious and logical question, and we didnt see it. And I would think that the Weekly Standard would love to tell us that if they knew.
Actually, there are a few journalists/journals with integrity left. Don't assume ...
How could anyone with an ounce of decency, integrity, love for their country and an IQ above ten ever, ever vote for Kerry? And yet, half of America will. Un "friggin'" believable.
George W. Bush is the real deal: he is who he says he is, and he leads from the heart.
Don't bet on it.
It doesn't matter. The real point is that one candidate has class and the other doesn't. . . never did.
Kerry is in the same camp with other unfeeling, self-promoters who have no core, no soul, no principles, no sense of decency. A vapid gigolo. He's going down,too, and afterwards,he will become a laughing stock and a complete nobody: having revealed himself thoroughly in this election. Rejoice for that.
How did the person who called her know she was a registered democrat?
I hope you are right. Right now I am just praying for a win for the good guy. Incidentally, I am starting to feel a little better. Kerry is sounding more and more desperate. Internal polls in the enemy camp must be "ugly."
You can get lists of registered voters from your local election officials, at least in my state. I'm working on a GOTV call list right now actually.
Great story
http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com
This poor woman loses her son, gets invited to a Kerry rally because of it, wants to ask him a question. They refuse to answer her question, and then they call her a liar. Man, there just aren't any more filthy words left to describe these Kerry people.
I have the same love and respect for the democrats as you.
Bush spoke to a rally of 5,000 at the Canton Memorial Civic Center on July 31. Afterwards, he met for 20 minutes with Buryj, the Rameys and the family of Sgt. Michael Barkey, who had been killed in Iraq on July 7. Buryj says she cried when she saw Bush. "He cried on my shoulder as much as I cried on his."
President Bush is a man whom loves his country and its soldiers regardless of party, race, sex, or creed. John Kerry is a man in love with power and in love with himself. I truly belive it John Kerry thought he could win power by being a Conservative Repulican he would.
According to the 1990 Census (http://www.lifesmith.com/comnames.html), Linda is the third most common female name in America. Back in my college single days, I dated five different women at one time or another, and two of them happened to be named Linda. I would be astounded if there weren't more than one Linda on the Kerry campaign staff.
Since when did the truth come into the Kerry campaign?
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