A respectful tip of the hat to John Holley, who has changed things for the better. When told that his son's body would be returned from Iraq in the most "expeditious" way (meaning in the cargo hold of a commercial airliner), John Holly wrote to his congressman.
An honor guard from son Matthew Holley's unit at Ft. Campbell, KY, was on hand in San Diego for the arrival of the body. Persuaded by Duncan Hunter, a Republican Congressman from California, Congress passed a law that requires the remains of miltary service personnel to be flown on a military or military-contracted aircraft with an escort and an honor guard. Commercial airliners are now used only if requested by families, or in cases where the remains are sent outside the United States.
Now, says Pentagon spokesman Maj. Stewart Upton, "regardless of what the reality was, there was a perception there that the proper respect was not being provided to those who made the ultimate sacrifice. That is no longer a question."
I am grateful for this new law, but I remember a story that assures me that respect was being accorded before the change. To refresh your memory of the story, visit this link:
http://alifeinpages.blogspot.com/2006/02/for-our-soldiers-true-story.html
One more thing before I sign off--I'm typing this on Monday night, and about to go put on the coffee for my book club. But already I foresee a problem. We read a literary book this month, and I've already heard from at least three women who couldn't get through it. Sigh. I found it slow in the beginning, gripping in the middle, and weak at the end. And no, I'm not going to tell you what book it was, because I have resolved never to diss authors in public. (I feel their pain.)
So . . . I'd better make that coffee STRONG.
DANA--what cool news about your church. Hubby and I were thrilled to read of your Easter service.
~~Angie
4 comments:
LOL. As I was reading your blog post I was like... is that my name?? Ha ha... Thanks for mentioning it! The church's website is www.elevationchurch.org and if anyone is in the Charlotte, NC area come check it out!! :)
Oh and by the way guess where I was last week... TAMPA BAY!! What's so weird is that I kept wanting to go see where the building was that the people got trapped in the elevator and I wanted to see the roads that were shut down because of the hurricane... I had to keep reminding myself "this is fiction". Your stories really come to life for me. :)
Have a fun book club meeting! Must find one of those... Any ideas on how to do that??
Actually, Dana, the Elevator is based on a real building, called the Lark Tower--oops, it's called the Park Tower; it's the Lark Tower in the book.
And the streets all use the same names . . . and the addresses are exactly correct. Hey, I only make up the people. :-)
Angie
Ah man! I could have gone to see it!! I thought some of it would have been the same but I don't know the area so I realized I probably couldn't find the roads from memory. I looked at the city's skyline and didn't know where to begin. :) Being there even made me wonder how the characters are doing now. Sigh. I hate it had to end...
And about a book club--if you can't find one in your area, you can always do what I did and start one of your own! I invited my entire neighborhood and one woman showed up. So we agreed to invite friends, and now we have about a dozen ladies, about half of whom show up to discuss any given book. We love it. :-)
Angie
P.S. If you're in downtown Tampa again, just follow Eddie's journey across the bridge. I'm pretty sure it'll take you straight to the Lark/Park Tower.
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