The END hath cometh.
Weeping.
Wailing.
Gnashing of teeth.
And that is just from the Media.
Posted on 10/01/2013 2:45:16 PM PDT by dennisw
WASHINGTON — Wheelchair-bound elderly veterans pushed aside barricades to tour the World War II Memorial Tuesday morning, in defiance of the government shutdown which closed all of the memorials in the nation’s capital.
The four bus loads of veterans — visiting from Mississippi as part of a once-in-a-lifetime Honor Flight tour — ignored National Park Police instructions not to enter the site as lawmakers and tourists cheered them on.
“We didn’t come this far not to get in,” one veteran proclaimed.
The scene was both emotional and comical at once. After it was clear they had lost control of the situation, Park Police officials stood aside, telling press that they had “asked for guidance on how to respond” to the breach of security.
As 80-something veterans slowly walked around the massive war memorial, Park Police stood quietly to the side, advising other tourists that the site was technically still closed. But they made no moves to stop the wishes of the war heroes.
The memorial was closed because of the government shutdown which started 11 hours earlier, after lawmakers failed to pass a temporary budget plan to keep nonessential federal programs operating. Republicans and Democrats have been stalled in budget fight for weeks, mostly over legislative add-ons dealing with the new healthcare law.
As a result, more than 800,000 federal employees were furloughed Tuesday, set to return only after Congress reaches a compromise. National parks and federal buildings were closed down. And the WWII Memorial — along with the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and much of the rest of the Capitol — were barricaded, to keep tourists away.
Several Republican lawmakers were on hand to greet the Mississippi Honor Flight veterans at the memorial on Tuesday, and nodded thoughtfully as the greatest generation representatives voiced their displeasure at being turned away from their own memorial.
Organizers said the trip took months of planning and nearly $100,000 in donations for airfare, food and buses. A dozen more are scheduled in the next week.
“It’s great to be here, but it’s really disappointing that we can’t get closer to see it,” said Gene Tolley, a Marine Corps veteran who served in the Pacific during the war. “I came through the city back in high school, but I was looking forward to coming back and seeing this.”
He got his wish.
As Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, distracted a Park Police representative, other lawmakers and their staff helped topple the metal fences. A bagpiper on hand for the event led the men past the crowd and into the heart of the memorial, attracting a large, applauding crowd.
“This just means so much to me,” said Alex “Lou” Pitalo, an Army vet who also served in the Pacific during WWII. “I waited 70 years to get a welcome like this. And to get to see this and to have all those people clapping … I’m just so happy. This was amazing.”
Officials from the Honor Flight network, which organized the tour, said they have advised upcoming trip planners that the memorials will not be open to the public, and to plan accordingly.
Meanwhile, at press time, Park Police said they were still reviewing how to handle similar problems in the future, since they still have no indication when the government shutdown will be resolved.
It is more than likely going to get violent. That’s my guess. I believe the Administration wants an altercation. And the way it is going like today at the WWII Memorial and our vets, that is precisely what they (the traitors in the White House) might get. With a dictator, I think this is the only unfortunate outcome it would appear.
This is the problem with a govenrment shutdown. Everyone is for it, until it effects them. Then all of the sudden they are a special snowflake and they want the rules changed. Just for them and no one else.
For the US Park Police to consider a bunch of elderly WW2 veterans walking across an open area to see their memorial as “a breach of security” shows you just how far down the crapper the USPP have gone.
They have had serious leadership problems over the past 5 years, and now they have serious mental problems when they can’t look at those veterans, possibly including their fathers or grandfathers, and see that this is “their” memorial, and have fought and paid in blood to see it.
This mentality of putting public parts of America off limits to Americans is Obama’s thumb in the eye of every serviceman and woman, and of their families, and IT HAS BEEN DONE ON PURPOSE.
My son, a combat veteran of Iraq, had to go to his post today as a federal police officer. Yet, if he were off duty, he couldn’t go to any of these war memorials either.
I spent two days last week with some of the bravest of our men who fought in Vietnam (Special Forces, Marines, Army, Recon/LRRPs) and Foreign Service Officers who served there, under fire.
Today they would not be allowed to visit both the Vietnam Memorial Wall and the Vietnam Memorial Statue.
This is the result of Obama’s “fundamental transformation of America”.
He has hired both “Good Germans” and “Good Comrades” to carry out this transformation, as well as having propagandized the stupid blacks, whites and hispanics who want “free” things instead of working for them.
If we don’t fight back right now, we are doomed. Perhaps those WW2 vets “who stormed the WW2 memorial barracades” just did that, opened the Western Front offensive against the entrenched enemy, Herr Comrade Obama.
However, the beach name was not Juno, Gold, or any other such name, it was Washington, DC, a place now known as “RED BEACH”.
These men went in to the bloody beaches of the world over 65 years ago, and they went in again, today. We, the Vietnam generation and the Iraq/Afghanistan generation of both civilian and military fighters, MUST become the Second Wave of our new fight for liberation from tyranny (elected or otherwise).
We cannot fail those who went before. To do so would be to spit on their graves, and in my family we don’t do things like that, ever!
Father - CWS WW2 (worked on the Chemical Mortar)
Father-in-Law - Iwo Jima (75th JASCO, Army Signal Corps)
Self - VN/Cambodia Journalist, 1970
Son - Operation Iraqi Freedom, “First Forward” 299th Engineers
To #28: Obama is sad that the US won WW2 because we were a “colonialist, imperialist power” and reds like him didn’t like that.
We should have had a draw and gone home.
Yep, he’s a commie bastard that doesn’t even belong in this country.
F U B O!!!
They’re not called the ‘Greatest Generation’ for nothing!
Bravo Vets. And we salute you.
They are not called “The Greatest Generation” for nothing!
Civil disobedience? - Eating lunch?
The poor fool didn’t have any idea that he was defiling a UN World Heritage site by feeding his kids lunch.
The man was sitting on a blanket, handing sandwiches to his family. He wasn’t even in the park proper, but in a clearing at the side of the highway outside of the valley entrance gate. near the motel that we were staying in (Cedar Lodge) and about 20 yards from the banks of the Merced River.
Does anything about that sound like an invitation to a swat team?
The man was sitting on a blanket, handing sandwiches to his family. He wasn’t even in the park proper, but in a clearing at the side of the highway outside of the valley entrance gate. near the motel that we were staying in (Cedar Lodge) and about 20 yards from the banks of the Merced River.
Does anything about that sound like an invitation to a swat team?
Wow. They walked up to him and just beat the hell out of him for no reason. Poor guy.
thanks dennisw.
GOP Reps Topple Barricades At Memorial For Veterans
October 1, 2013 - 2:14 PM
http://cnsnews.com/video/cnsnews/gop-reps-topple-barricades-memorial-veterans
http://www.mrctv.org/sites/default/files/embedcache/123117.html
Good lord, how/why/who?
The END hath cometh.
Weeping.
Wailing.
Gnashing of teeth.
And that is just from the Media.
Thank you again, WWII Veterans!
Per FoxNews, there may be a confrontation at the Memorial today [Wednesday].
Yesterday, visitors and some politicians helped move the barricades aside so vets and friends could visit the memorial.
The Park Service apparently is going to use police to patrol the Memorial today — as another tour group is in transit to visit the Memorial today.
Obamagoons could use this as an incendiary event — never let a crises go to waste.
==
A politician (I missed his name) said that the Memorial was created with public donations and, thus, should be open regardless. He went on to say that the Park Service had to expend money to move the barriers in because the Memorial is an open-air memorial.
What’s interesting is our WW2 vets are now at the point the Civil war vets were at in 1933. Leaving this earth at a rapid rate and in another 5-10 years there will probably only be a handful left, if any. That’s why I alllllways make it a damn point to shake their hand and thank them for their service if I get the chance because pretty soon you’ll never get that honor to do so again.
Beautiful!
Nice post.
Thanks to all your family members who have served.
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