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© St. Petersburg Times, published March 18, 2003
Editor: Re: Bring war dead home, bill says:
Grandstanding, disrespectful, pandering, sacrilegious, idiotic, an utter waste of time, moronic. Stomping on the bodies of men who gave their lives for freedom to get publicity and score points with the radical right.
These are a few of the words and phrases that came to my mind upon reading that our own Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite has suggested exhuming the bodies of American soldiers who were killed and buried in France during World War II, in order to re-inter them in "more patriotic" soil."
With a war looming, the economy tanking, health care nonexistent for many Americans and the ongoing threat of terrorist attacks on American soil, one would think that Brown-Waite would have a few better things to do with her time than dream up this nonsensical publicity stunt. One also would question Ms. Brown-Waite's competence.
Oh, and please let your colleagues know, Rep. Brown-Waite, that French toast was named after its inventor, Thomas French, and French fries refer to the manner in which the potatoes are cut, or "frenched."
-- Cindy Gustafson, Hernando Beach
Editor: Re: Les nincompoops, March 13 Times editorial:
If there is anything to be held indefensible in this life, it must be a novice Washington politician who avoids the serious issue, which is the advisability of war against Iraq, and focuses instead upon a completely peripheral suggestion that the United States should exhume and repatriate the remains of those World War I and World War II casualties who are buried on French soil.
While this sort of cosmetic distraction might excite hawks, the likes of Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Rush Limbaugh, it is of no significance within the scope of the bigger picture. It is, as the Times editorial suggested, the worst type of grandstanding, which minor figures, such as Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, seek as a mechanism to raise their profile in Congress.
Brown-Waite, who failed to gain an electoral majority in either Citrus or Hernando counties, and whose most prominent claim to fame is that her husband destroyed the election signs of her competition, Democrat Karen Thurman, owes her electoral victory to redistricting and not to popular support.
One must wonder whether she actually conducted any research on the American Battle Monuments Commission and their dignified maintenance of burial sites in France and other foreign countries. American fatalities are not interred in small, overgrown church graveyards. On the contrary, the final resting place for these heroes would stand favorable comparison with any military cemetery anywhere in the United States. These facilities are impeccably managed, by dedicated American staff, to the highest standard.
There are about 124,250 Americans interred in 24 burial grounds administered and operated by the commission. The concept of exhuming their remains is utterly impractical. We should also note that more than a quarter-million World War I and World War II casualties were returned to home soil at the request of relatives who chose to exercise that option many years ago.
The George W. Bush Republicans must be desperate for any prowar support if they are encouraging their congressional representatives to fabricate this sort of inflammatory trivia.
-- Chris Lloyd, Lecanto
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