Help us honor fallen heroes
In spring 2014, AP U.S. history students at Auburn High School began an endeavor to ensure that the legacy of veterans from Alabama and Georgia would not be forgotten. For two years, this effort entailed the collection of oral histories that were submitted to the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. In addition to collecting the oral histories of Vietnam veterans this spring, students are working to preserve the memory of fallen heroes through the Wall of Faces project, sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF).
The VVMF, which built the Vietnam Wall in 1982, seeks to honor all Vietnam veterans and help heal the nation's wounds from the Vietnam War. As they continue their mission, they are seeking to connect a face with every name on the Wall through their interactive digital Wall of Faces and in the future Education Center.
In an effort to help fulfill this mission, AP U.S. history students at Auburn High School are seeking the region's help in providing photographs to honor the memory of the fallen soldiers. As of December 2015, 72 of Muscogee County's 120 casualties in the Vietnam War do not have photographs representing them (715 of the 1,584 casualties from Georgia lack images).
Your help in finding photos of the fallen heroes from Muscogee County would be greatly appreciated. For those with information or photos, please contact Blake Busbin at wbbusbin@auburnschools.org. Families and friends can also submit photos to the Wall of Faces site, by going to www.vvmf.org and clicking the Wall of Faces link. The Wall is searchable by name and, from the advanced search link, veterans can be found by state, county, branch, rank or date of casualty.
Blake Busbin
Auburn
Life-challenged
Dear Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, et al: Though I'm sure you provide a service to humanity (and the terminally bored), I refuse to share my every move with you.
You will not be seeing photos of my lunch, no cute pix of my kitties in costume (as if I could manager that), no step-by -step coverage of my grass growing (or not growing).
I was once told I needed to update my Twitter account 20 times a day. Twitter? I fill my bird feeder once a week or as needed, depending on squirrel activity.
Note to Social Media: I am a busy person! I actually DO things! I don't have time to walk around with a smartphone in one hand. I may be clumsy at times, but I don't walk into fountains or glass doors because I'm staring at that gadget. Get a life -- one of your own. Try talking to people -- you'll be amazed at what you can learn.
BTW -- that's my foot you're standing on, not the escalator step.
L.M. Tryon
Columbus
Time to say 'Enough'
Wall Street banks defrauded middle-class Americans out of $5 trillion in Y2K and over $13 trillion in the Great Recession.
" At the tail end of all this frantic lying, cheating, and scamming on all sides, during which no good jobs were created the final result is that we all ended up picking up the tab, subsidizing all this crime and dishonesty and pessimism as a matter of national policy. We paid for this instead of a generation of health insurance, or an alternative energy grid, or a brand new system of roads and highways. With the $13-plus trillion we are estimated to ultimately spend on the bailouts, we could have not only bought and paid off every single subprime mortgage in the country (that would have only cost $1.4 trillion), we could have paid off every remaining mortgage of any kind in this country -- and still have had enough money left over to buy a new house for every American who does not already have one." (Matt Taibbi, Griftopia)
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and other Wall Street banks, insurance and investment companies have lobbied and contributed campaign cash to congressional representatives until established regulatory safeguards like the Glass-Steagall Act (which prevented the mergers of insurance, investment banking, and commercial banking -- installed after the Great Depression) and the Commodity Exchange Act (which prevented speculation) have been dismantled. Revolving door financial hiring practices have left America with a broken, rigged financial system of greed where criminal defrauders are promoted rather than punished.
Senator Elizabeth Warren is trying to correct this injustice, but she needs help. If Americans don't elect someone who will fix this crisis, someone like Bernie Sanders, we will see all we have worked for -- our pensions, our investments, our college funds, etc. -- disappear into Wall Street pockets.
Gay Hopper
Eufaula
Warm embrace
We are fortunate in Columbus and surrounding areas to have hospice care for our family and friends during most difficult times. My family and I are most thankful to acknowledge Hospice Advantage for providing the best of care for my beloved daddy.
Thank you Melissa Wright, Conchetta Perry, Stacy Balkum, Shannon Hamilton, and Mary Ellen Cobbs! Words cannot relay to each of you our heartfelt appreciation my family and I extend to you, at what was a most difficult time in our lives. The love and care you all showed, both day and night, both professionally and personally was so comforting and
touched our lives forever.
Our sincerest appreciation to all of you!
Mary Scarbrough
Columbus
This story was originally published January 4, 2016 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Help us honor fallen heroes ."