Vietnam War

Jane Fonda's appearance at Glendale's public library has prompted letters of support from Julianne Spillman and Carolyn Howard-Johnson in recent days ("Hooray for Fonda and the library group," Friday, and "Library a place for all views to be shared," Saturday, Mailbag). Spillman's continuing leftist treacle is most offensive, particularly her baseless claim that "we all know that the Vietnam War was as big a mistake as the Iraq war is today." No, we all don't know that "the Vietnam War was a mistake."

Excerpts from a speech delivered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial "Memory Day," April 16, 2001, by Anthony J. Principi, U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs. ... The historian Stephen Ambrose wrote, "A memorial's message is not just a remembrance of past sacrifice. It is a reminder to future generations that the torch of freedom is now theirs to carry; that the patriotism, the unity and the responsibility of war's generations cannot be relegated to stone and mortar merely to remember, but that these are values to nourish and maintain in each generation."

Frank W. Bunkell's commentary, published April 2 ("Freedoms enjoyed were earned by employing force"), where he brings letter writer Tadeh Ohanian and his school principal to task for an Iraqi war protest held at their school, prompts me to write this rebuttal. Most disturbingly, he later comments, "You cannot have a legislature and executive branch that we vote in to the country, and then take to the streets and usurp their authority when there are things you do not like.

MONTROSE ? The removal of the American flag from its post over the Vietnam War memorial in the Montrose Shopping Park is an ongoing concern for anti-war protesters, who have been passing out leaflets and posting fliers expressing their opposition to the Montrose Shopping Park Assn.?s decision on when the flag should fly above the memorial. Montrose Peace Vigil members, who oppose the war in Iraq, have been holding weekly anti-war rallies for more than two years at the war memorial on the corner of Honolulu Avenue and Ocean View Boulevard.

Demonstrators took turns lying on an inflatable mattress at the corner of Honolulu Avenue and Ocean View Boulevard on Friday while others passed out daisies and sang songs of peace in commemoration of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 40th anniversary Bed-In for peace. Lennon and Ono staged a bed-in in 1969 at a hotel during their honeymoon and allowed cameras to photograph them in bed while they promoted peace and protested the Vietnam War. Forty years later, the members of the Montrose Peace Vigil tried to re-create the couple’s demonstration, but they decided to take it to the streets of their town for a couple of hours.

Ryan Carter GLENDALE -- The light from their stars is flickering as a generation of mothers die. Still, the memories are like yesterday. The future? Uncertain. The membership of the Glendale chapter of Gold Star Mothers, a national group dedicated to promoting the memory of loved ones lost during war and helping veterans and their dependents, is dwindling. Nora Golsh, a resident of La Crescenta, got involved with the Glendale chapter after her husband's 23-year-old son Stephen died in Vietnam in 1970.

Members of the Air Force Junior ROTC based at Crescenta Valley High School, proudly displayed their work for the community during their free Century of Aviation Exposition on Saturday. More than 50 people came to see the students' work in the school cafeteria and career center and to hear some distinguished Air Force pilots speak about their hair-raising experiences during World War II and the Vietnam War. The exposition was a great way to expose students and other members of the community to the aviation industry, said Lt. Col. David Worley, one of the unit's instructors.

I haven't been reading too much of this part of the paper lately, but when I do it just amazes me how people take for granted becoming a true American and how they show their arrogance and disrespect for those of us who have had to struggle to survive to live in a society as one. First of all, you can say all you want to about me, and I will tell you this: My people died for this country, they were stripped of the ...

Jackson Bell Joel Angle plans to enjoys his day off today in a fairly typical way: lounging at the beach, sipping a beer or two and relaxing with good friends. But for Angle, a U.S. Army specialist who fought in Iraq and is now stationed in Hawaii, Memorial Day will also have its solemn moments. He and a handful of his Army buddies will get together to talk about fellow soldiers who died during the war. "There is not a day I don't think about those soldiers I served with," said Angle, a 22-year-old Clark Magnet High School graduate.

Destruction too drastic for El Tovar Last week the News-Press ran an editorial ("Council must excise cancer from body politic," Jan. 27) with some conclusions and recommendations for the disposition of the much discussed residence on El Tovar that I find somewhat irrational and illogical. As I recall, your alternatives were to shave the house down to compliance or demolish it. This sounds like a quote from the Vietnam War, which went something like, "In order to save the village we had to destroy it."