The Viet Nam Wall is in Wadsworth

28 MAY 08 - The truck arrived in Wadsworth at approximately 1635 escorted by Rolling Thunder and others So much for schedules...

29 MAY 08- Wall will be erected in the square of town.

30 MAY 08 - 10:00AM - Opening Ceremony. Will remain open 24 hours per day.

1 JUN 08 - 6:00PM - Closing Ceremony and Taps

MEMORIAL DAY

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 - 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.
In 1915, inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields," Moina Michael replied with her own poem:
We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.

She then conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen

For a more complete history see: www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html

Military Ball CANCELLED !!!

The Military Ball scheduled for 17 MAY has been postponed until a future date. Anyone who prepaid will receive a refund at the next dinner meeting.

Fulton is Right on the Mark - Beacon Journal Letter

What KSU speaker
left out about May 4

I read with interest the article (''Former U.N. inspector speaks bluntly at KSU,'' May 5) on the remembrance of the May 4 shootings at Kent State. Regretfully, while the speaker (Scott Ritter, former U.N. weapons inspector) made several good points, he also managed to forget several others equally important.

For what it's worth, KSU has the same problem. It would have been nice had he mentioned the threats to downtown businesses (if they didn't place anti-war signs), the burning of the buildings and some of the other things those who lived nearby heard about.

The deaths and wounding of the students were, indeed, a tragedy but the Ohio National Guard did not come on campus because a bunch of students were holding a peaceful protest. They came because people were afraid, and public property was being damaged.

According to the speaker, the ''rights of American freedom of speech and assembly were trampled.'' My copy of the Constitution says: the ''rights of the people peacefully to assemble.'' (Emphasis added by the writer.) Regrettably, this did not happen.

I was a GI Bill commuter student at Kent from 1958 to 1967. I received a very good education, but I also learned that KSU was bigger on rights than responsibilities.
As a final note, Kent owes Professor Glenn Frank a huge debt of gratitude for the major role he played in calming things down. I can only hope he was recognized for it.

Harold A. Fulton
Wooster