President Barack Obama salutes as he steps off Marine One on the South Lawn of The White House in Washington, Friday, Nov. 6, 2009, after going to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington
President Barack Obama salutes as he steps off Marine One on the South Lawn of The White House in Washington, Friday, Nov. 6, 2009, after going to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington
Saturday Word: Fort Hood and Health Care
By Bernie Becker
President Obama uses his weekly address this week to express sympathy for those who lost loved ones at the Fort Hood shooting and also to hail the valor of those on the scene.
“It is a crime that would have horrified us had its victims been Americans of any background,” Mr. Obama says. “But it’s all the more heartbreaking and all the more despicable because of the place where it occurred and the patriots who were its victims.”
But, Mr. Obama adds, the tragedy also brought out the best in some. “We saw soldiers and civilians alike rushing to aid fallen comrades; tearing off bullet-riddled clothes to treat the injured; using blouses as tourniquets; taking down the shooter even as they bore wounds themselves.”
Finally — after reports that the suspect at Fort Hood, Nidal Malik Hasan, who is Muslim, shouted what sounded like “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire — Mr. Obama paid tribute to the diverse nature of the military. “They are Americans of every race, faith, and station,” he says. “They are Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers. They are descendants of immigrants and immigrants themselves. They reflect the diversity that makes this America. But what they share is a patriotism like no other.”
I am always hoping he trips and falls flat getting off Marine One!
WR isn’t far from the White House.
Bambi needed a helicopter?
Is that typical for a (any) President?