Memorial Day Weekend Arrives With Disrespectful, Bizarre Events Surrounding Vets, Country
A series of bizarre and disrespectful events kicked off Memorial Day weekend, leading up to a day that is revered as a time of remembrance and respect for people who died in service to our nation.
President Barack Obama on Friday travelled to Hiroshima, Japan, to announce a “moral revolution,” is needed for nuclear arms technology, The New York Times reported. Obama laid a wreath at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and spoke to survivors of the attack.
“It was a delicate decision,” The New York Times said of the visit. “For weeks, the White House had refused to say whether Mr. Obama would meet with (Hiroshima) survivors.” Before the trip, he said he would not apologize for the attack.
Obama called for a reduction in nuclear weapons in the U.S. and around the world.
The U.S. entered World War II after a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands on Dec. 7, 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a precursor to the U.S. dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.
At the time, President Harry Truman said, “The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been repaid many fold.”
During an event for presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton in Middlesex County, New Jersey, a video shows a group of attendees refused to stand for the National Anthem.
“We have values,” said a speaker kicking off the event.
Normally, it is considered a show of respect to stand when the National Anthem plays. The video shows people in the crowd staring with their cell phones during the National Anthem.
Michael Nicholas Tristano, a former staff sergeant who flew in bombing raids of Nazi-occupied Europe, managed to survive.
Tristano’s caregiver, Elena Erickson of North Port, “clubbed him in the head multiple times with an aluminum oxygen tank,” the Associated Press reported. The two had reportedly argued about Erickson’s payment. She later called police.
After repeatedly assaulting him, Erickson allegedly returned to the home a few hours later and then called police. She was charged with attempted murder and tampering with evidence, and was remanded to Sarasota County Jail on Thursday for $300,000 bail.
The North Port Police Department said crimes against children and the elderly carry extra, more severe penalties, AP reported. Erickson could face life behind bars.
George Francisco, vice president of the Venice Chamber of Commerce, was part of an effort to get the replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial installed near Venice Beach. His father was a combat veteran.
“I’ve known the sacrifices these people made in an incredibly unpopular war,” he told Channel. So to continue the mistreatment of Vietnam veterans is somewhat shocking, somewhat shocking and quite sad,” Francisco said.
At Centennial Memorial Park in Anniston, Ala., vandals twice this month defaced memorials for veterans, WVTM Channel 13 reported.
One week ago, vandals destroyed 100 small American flags.
“This is hallowed ground to me, it always has been,” said Ken Rollins, a member of the Alabama’s Board of Veterans Affairs, who reportedly spent 12 years helping to build the monument. “It’s no different than Arlington Cemetery. The things you wouldn’t do to your grandmama’s grave, we shouldn’t do here.”
Vandals removed and threw all of the flags into a big heap of broken sticks, Channel 13 reported.
Rollins attributed the acts to ignorance.
“They have no idea what they’re doing,” he said in the report. “They really don’t.”
[Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images]
