WWI, A Special Appeal

If I may, I would like to make a special appeal to all of you to sign this petition and write your senators and representatives National World War I Memorial.

This is a somewhat personal appeal; my Grandpa was a decorated combat vet with the 33rd Division, 65th Brigade, 129th Infantry, Hamel, St. Mihiel, Chipilly, and Meuse-Argonne, in the Great War. These men deserve this...our World War I casualties were 320,710 with 53,513 KIA (the 33rd’s were KIA 691 and WIA 6,173). That may not seem like much but our combat participation was only a few months.

This is the latest newsletter from the foundation:

WORLD WAR I MEMORIAL FOUNDATION
www.wwimemorial.org

October 10, 2009

Dear Friends of the DC War Memorial:

It's been a couple months since our last update. Here's what has been happening.

1. Restoration of the memorial.

The National Park Service is going forward with plans for restoration of the DC War Memorial, with funds allocated from the stimulus bill. Here is a link to their restoration plan:

http://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?parkID=427&projectId=26513&documentID=29688

The plan was recently reviewed by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC). NCPC staff endorsed the restoration plan; the staff's comments are attached below, as are comments submitted by the Foundation.

2. Veterans' Day fund-raiser and exhibition; remarks by former Sen. John Warner

For those of you in the Washington area, mark your calendars for Monday, November 9, when we will be hosting a Reception to Benefit the World War I Memorial and Exhibition of Photographs of the Last Survivors of World War I. The reception will be held at the Woodrow Wilson House here in DC. We are delighted that former Senator John Warner, a World War II vet himself and the son of a World War I veteran, will headline the event for us. More information to follow.

Also over Veterans' Day weekend, a group of veterans are gathering together at the DC War Memorial site for a cleaning of the memorial grounds the morning of November 7, to support the memorial and call attention to the need for a national World War I memorial. I will forward information on that separately, and I hope those of you who are local will join in.

3. Legislation

We continue to seek support on Capitol Hill for support for legislation supporting a national World War I Memorial on the Mall in Washington. H.R. 482, the Frank Buckles World War I Memorial Act, continues to be pending in the House. We have had some productive meetings with various Senators, and are working to get a bill introduced in the Senate.

4. How you can help.

E-mail or write your Congressman and Senators and ask them to support HR 482.

We continue to gain support for our on-line petition asking Congress to re-dedicate the District of Columbia War Memorial as a national memorial. We now have about 700 signatures, but I would like to get it over 1000 before we start sending it to members of Congress. If you haven't done so, please sign and ask your family and friends to do the same. If each of you gets ten other people to sign the petition, we'll be well into the thousands of signatures. (Facebook is a great way to spread the word!)

Here is a link to the on-line petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/wwi2009/petition.html

Thanks again for your support.

World War I Memorial Foundation
www.wwimemorial.org
contact us: info@wwimemorial.org

LOL...#723 will have to be removed...

Thanks man.

#730

Thanks folks and please pass this around. I heard from them today...

"Ken,

thanks so much for your support. Looks like you're getting some results, as there's been an uptick in signatures over the last day!

Regards,

Edwin Fountain"

Just signed #748

jackdog wrote:745 and 746 here.
Ken my father fought in both WW1 and WWll so this equally means a great deal to me
thank you for posting this

Both wars! Holy Cow...this I'd like to hear a bit about Jack.

# 753

#758

Signed and forwarded by email.

Thanks for the opportunity.

Volz, opening an email account for the purpose of return contacts from online activism is a great idea; thanks for suggesting it. Mine makes me much more apt to sign things without the overriding fear of clogging up my primary email account.

This thread wasn't in Campfire, where it would be seen by fewer members, so it's fair to assume that a number of forum members chose to either not open the thread or not take action.

This saddens me, because I see non-involvement of this nature - an unwillingness to take even a small action of a patriotic nature - part of the reason this country is in the mess it's in and is now looking an uncertain future squarely in the eye.

If we have no respect for our ancestors' sacrifices, we can surely have little commitment to make them for our progeny.

Just my .02

I don't want to turn this thread into a political diatribe but....

Now you know the reason why the USA is in this condition...we, or they let it happen for what ever unknown reason.

We should probably stop here because otherwise it will belong in the campfire.

Agreed... good point. Wasn't intending ignition, lol...

No offense intended, Kilo. This thread does need to stay where it is.