One man’s war – a woman’s art!

The British have left Southern Iraq after 6 years
Audio slide show here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8025437.stm

“London-based artist Arabella Dorman was invited to join British troops in southern Iraq before they pulled out of the country”

Although Dorman’s subjects were the British troops they are the faces of all the young that go to war and are giving their life and limbs whilst we talk taxes.

A reminder- this is an Audio slide show so turn on your sound
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8044225.stm

Who is YOUR Super Hero?

by Paula Tobias

Who is your super hero?

With everything going on nationally and locally I wonder if we forget what’s going on in Iraq.

I read last week that they were bringing home 12,000 of our troops.
I wondered to myself “why are you not mentioning the other half of that story, they’re sending more over!”

My nephew and his unit began deployment the beginning of this year. They were deployed from Columbus, OH to Fort Sill OK, then onto Kuwait this morning we spoke to him on Skype and he’s landed they’re in Iraq.

They’re a long way from home for a long time.
ED NOTE: I HAVE REMOVED THE REQUEST FOR CARDS AND THE ADDRESS AS APPARENTLY IT VIOLATES ARMY REGS.
Prayers will be appreciated as well for the hard work they’re all doing.

You talkin’ to ME ?????

by Loraine Ritchey thatwb@yahoo.com
I have watched the continuing downward spiral in latest conflict -Gaza and Israel. I will not comment here on the pros and cons and right and wrongs. Jill Miller Zimon has some excellent links and blog posts on the subject
http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com/

My focus with this post is like everything else that is controversial, political or taxable – the rush to get public opinion on their side Just who is it they are talking to and who are they aka ( public of opinion)

Let us take the Israel / Palestine ( war?) – a quick google search will give a plethora of sound bites and pr opportunities from all sides. CNN has had hours and hours of coverage as has the world electronic and print media all trying to reach out to the “public”for their responses.

The other fight, it seems, is to get the public on your side.

So just WHO is the public they are talking to? I don’t know about you but my little voice is hardly ever heard and doesn’t seem to be effectual in the least. However, time after time , day after day I am told what I and my neighbors are thinking- must be my neighbors because CNN never contacted me .

I am not alone, as I believe Lorain’s isn’t being heard , even the county isn’t hearing the voice of the public; for instance Lorain County said No to taxes by a 4 to 1 margin and guess what now
http://morningjournal.com/articles/2008/12/18/news/doc494a9db60aa69527025642.txt

“A final version of the tax will go into effect as an emergency in April, but the commissioners went through the process to have the measure placed on the November ballot for voter approval. First, they will take public comment during three hearings scheduled next month.

First, they will take public comment during three hearings scheduled next month.

So why do they want a public hearing? Is anyone really going to listen if the ratio of 4 to 1 of those that show at the public hearings say no! I don’t think so somehow .

This post is not about whether the tax is good or needed but WHO are The Powers that Be (in all aspects of our life) they talking to and do they listen ever and if they do listen just WHO are they listening to?

I have a theory that world wide there are about 1,000 designated people who are the “public opinion people” and anytime these issues crop up they are contacted with :

We of the Powers of Be need your response in the name of public opinion on this issue ( whatever it is) –
so they can send out information world wide through the CNN’s , the BBC’s the local media what WE of the public really want.

They must be talking to them because they sure aren’t talking to me or even listening to me – Are they listening to you ???
Maybe I could get a public opinion response on that ? Anyone know who I contact?

Who is the PO representative for Lorain, Ohio, USA the Americas??? an email addy would suffice!

NOTE this video contains strong “agricultural ” language with regard to – planting a furrow- Loraine

A Remembrance -Lorain Connection -Strasbourg

My journey to Europe became one of remembrance whether I wanted to remember or not , it was as if I was being guided to use what little talent I have to archive for those far removed – the lost – of generations, then and now.

Strasbourg is in the Alsace Lorraine region of France .

Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial

ED NOTE Lorain historians will remember that it was this region that reminded Mr. Herman Ely ( founder of Elyria who traversed the area ) of our county ( Lorain) was very similar to the region Lorraine therefore named the county Lorain. After Charleston Village was shamed and a name was needed for corporation in 1874 , the name was taken for the city from the “county name”- Lorain

We had only planned to be in Strasbourg the one night; we booked a charming little hotel near the Cathedral for the night of Sept 11th. Unfortunately due to a terrible experience with “rail travel” we had to leave the cruise on the Rhine and the boat the Ste. Odile early and come back to Strasbourg, where we booked the same hotel. for the night of Sept 15th .

We called home to let them know where we were , as we had had no communication availability whilst on the boat. We were met with the tragic news that my daughter in law and her family had experienced the death of a child in Lorain whilst he was riding home the previous day during the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.

There is nothing worse than being away from your loved ones when something like this happens, you feel totally inadequate and helpless. The next morning , although I am not a Catholic, I walked across the square to Strasbourg Cathedral to light a candle of remembrance for this child.

My mind was not on the beautiful windows, architecture, statues and carvings,

I watched the tourists as they quietly took in all the beauty that surrounded them;the sound of the Cathedral’s bells reverberating through the stillness.

My heart heavy, I leaned against a pillar whilst my husband took photos and noticed the stone pillar was scarred and what looked ( to me) like bullet holes, it hadn’t been fixed. Had there been a battle of some sort that had scarred the stone? Then I noticed

Life has a way of making you realize what is truly important “life itself”, I lit another candle for those brave men, boys really, whose mothers also wept and one for mothers .

In another Lorraine there are those that still remember.
Source: AP Photo/Jerome Delay

I hope Lorain remembers her sons and daughters this November 11th , you know the bells at the Cathedral will call out to those that are lost on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month .

ERIC BARNES – Lorain Remembers
Photo Henery Hawk
Dedicated by Henery Hawk– http://thewomblog.com/?p=1165

“One generation comes, another goes and mingles with the dust,
And thus we come and go, and come and go,
Each for the moment filling up
Some little place, and thus we disappear
In quick succession, and it shall be so,
Till time in one vast perpetuity be swallowed up” ( author unknown)

Other links to REMEMBER
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7716051.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7718227.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7717642.stm

Wait for it!- A Journey of the Mind -REMEMBER

By Loraine Ritchey
ED NOTE – photos E. Ritchey Click on to enlarge

For the last 9 months I have been wishing my days and weeks away , waiting to get to the other side of Cancer . I don’t care that with each passing day I get closer to the end of my alloted time span, another wrinkle appears and I have to dye the hair more frequently –
If someone had told me in January I would want my child’s body to be bombarded with poisonous chemicles and radiation I would’ve said “don’t be ridiculous”- but that is what happened. And I wait – wait for the treatments , wait for the tests and wait the interminable wait for results- daring to hope – scared to know !

I had hoped the trip back to Europe would release me for just a moment in time from my constant dark companion that is with me no matter how positive the news. It is there like an evil presence hovering, just out of reach . Maybe that is why my thoughts were darker than usual on this trip.

Maybe it is because World War 2 is still discussed within my family, my mum having lived through it – Maybe it is because since I wrote
“Would you like to include Dachau” it has become one of the highest “hits” of the 295 published articles so far on this blog. All thoughts in this household have been about how precious is life lately and the fight to keep it – maybe that too had a bearing

So whilst waiting again for yet another train in England I noticed the poster advertisement for the novel “The Final Reckoning by Sam Bourne-Jonathon Freedland
Source

Authors Note from The Final Reckoning is a novel- but the story at its heart is true . A group of Holocaust survivors did, in fact, seek revenge for the Nazi slaughter of the Jews in the months and years that followed the Second World War. The were known in Hebrew as the Nokmim, the Avengers…. their story was first told in English … Forged in Fury- Michael Elkins published 1971.. From the Wings byJoseph Harmatz and The Avengers- Richard Cohen.
Plan A-The scheme to introduce Toxins in the German Water supply and Plan B aimed at poisoning former SS officers via the Nuremburg Bakery

Nikki, my husband and I ended up on a totally French boat the Ste. Odile for our trip along the Rhine…. more on that experience in another post.

Actually I was definitely one of the youngest on the ship,

my daughter was totally out of place.

The cruise was not quite what we expected and that will also be another article. Needless to say I had a lot of time to read and wonder as we crawled our way along the river.
I watched my fellow travellers as they excercised and photographed the German villages and Castles along the route.

My mind turning over the fact that most of them would have been children or teenagers during World War 2 and the Nazi era- What did they think as they too looked at the beautiful homes along the banks? Were they also wondering as I was?

Who lived there in the 1940’s was this town sympathetic to the Nazis, did allied prisoners look longingly out of “castle keeps” to freedom?

source

http://www.ww2f.com/battle-europe/23157-death-march-across-germany.html

there was another Death March inflicted upon American POWs during World War II – a journey that stretched hundreds of miles and lasted nearly three months. It was an odessey undertaken in the heart of a terrible German winter fraught with sickness, death and cruelty. Though experienced by thousands of GIs it was all but forgotten by their countrymen.

Did their trek across Germany see them looking at the same views of the towns and villages from the relative comfort of the Ste. Odile? Were my fellow “cruise of seniors” passengers thinking similar thoughts to mine- after all the majority of them had been alive at the time- unlike myself.

The biergartens in Boppard full of laughter and the “old men” who sat enjoying the last of their days – who were they ? My dark thoughts would not let me enjoy the German songs they sung and I hurried away to buy happier remembrances for my family.

Although Sam Bourne’s novel was a work of fiction it had been based on actual events- ones of which I hadn’t been aware .. I watched the ancient dark grey green water slip past washing away the time of memory , at the pristine and picturesque homes and romatic castles and wondered if indeed their walls could talk what would they tell?
Source : Third Reich In Ruins
http://www.thirdreichruins.com/miscbldgs2.htm
Wilhelm Keitel House

Photo Geoff Walden and appears with his permission. Please take the time to go to Geoff’s site
NOTE ALSO CHECK OUT HENERY’S PHOTOS
The Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.