Carrboro family loses son in Iraq

I don't know if it was relevant for this family but did the piece mention that military serive is also the fast track for getting your green card? You get to cut years off the waiting list (or your life). Another one of those recruiting "incentives."

The DTH has a story about Army Staff Sgt. Misael Martinez in this mornings edition. It mentions that he was honored before the Carrboro Board of Alderman last night. There appears also to be a Latino Community Credit Union of North Carolina scholarship in Sgt. Martinez's name. Anyone have the details? A link, phone number, or address to contribute to the scholarship?

Carrboro honors soldier slain in Iraq

http://www.newsobserver.com/161/story/518244.html

"The Martinez family asks that memorials and donations to made to the scholarship fund. They should be sent to LCCU, Attn: Misael Martinez Memorial Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 25360, Durham, NC 27702."

Personally, I find it sad that they couldn't just stick with honoring this hero:

"The board's resolution also calls for other actions, such as immediately withdrawing troops from Iraq and for the Bush administration and Congress 'to pass a just and fair comprehensive immigration reform that meets the economic needs of our country and reflect the ideals and values in which this nation was founded.'"

Honoring heroes is from the same well of love as working for "just and fair comprehensive immigration reform". To suggest otherwise is misleading and divisive. People who work for peace are NOT anti-solider. Despite your hinting otherwise Mr. Black.

I am not hinting at a damn thing, Mr. Russell. I said it clearly - it sad that they couldn't just stick with honoring this hero. Linking his death with their political judgments about when to leave Iraq is something we can all have opinions about and the elected officials of Carrboro have no expertise in this area that gives them any more valid an opinion than anyone else. This is just "feel good politics," plain and simple. Seems like solving all of the problems they were elected to solve would be more appropriate, but that's never stopped them in the past.

Where's the hint?

With the slain soldier's family in attendance, and his brother preparing to leave for Iraq next month, last night's tribute would have been much more elegant without the political attachment.

War is political. Using political tools to end war is not disrespectful to solders. In the example of the Carrboro BOA I think they work to help save lives.

Fred,
Sorry if I jumped to conclusions. I saw your statement,

I find it sad that they couldn't just stick with honoring this hero

as an conservative argument against anti-war politics. I think its easy to see how these words could fit a conservative style of rhetoric that suggests working for peace is somehow anti-solider. It isn't a stretch I think.

I believe the leaders of Carrboro are sincere in their honoring Misael Martinez. I don't believe "Feel good politics" is their motivation. These Alderman are real people with real emotions. They care and work hard for positive change. I'm happy that they lead by example and are unafraid of expressing their opinions about global issues that effect their constituents. There comments impress the hell out of me. I'd say that Carrboro voters elected them for that and many other reasons. Wish i could vote for them. :)

SSG Martinez is not honored by being politicized in this way. Did they study this political issue? Did they examine the ramifications of an instant pullout? (BTW, do they know that an immediate pullout is about a five-month process?) Do the understand what happens to that region if we do pull out? Do they realize that the US would be right back there in short order in a regional conflict? Do they grasp that a regional conflict there would most likely go nuclear?

Those harshest critics of the POTUS and the SECDEF and their advisors (who have studied the issue) have said since day one that if you get in, you're in. Well they did it and walking away makes it worse, not better. Now, the chorus of "stay the course" is being drowned out by the "consider new options" folks. Rest assured that none of those options that will be seriously considered includes immediate withdrawal.

I'm glad that folks like their local officials to take stands on global issues, but their gut emotional reactions should not be the standard for resolutions. Would they stand for that approach on other issues that citizens feel strongly about? Feeling strongly is not the standard, informed decision-making should be. And I remain unconvinced that they are anywhere close to informed on this complex policy issue.

So Brian, label me a conservative if you desire, but calling for an immediate withdrawal is anything but working for peace - it's working toward a worse war. Look at the other wording that they might have selected that might have expressed their political frustrations. What they did was not to honor SSG Martinez; they honored their commitment to their political worldview. That is ANTI-SOLDIER.

Ruby, reading is fundamental. Re-read the quote: “The board's resolution also calls for other actions, such as immediately withdrawing troops from Iraq."

Where did it say end the war?

They claim to be honoring a dead soldier. They politicized his death. That does not honor him. I never have nor will waste my time telling you or your husband to agree with my view. If you go back and re-read you will see that I never called people anti-soldier for disagreeing with my views. I'm sorry that you missed this key point. It's simple-minded to do so.

Were resolution passed in their name that also said go kill the terrorists?

When the fireman and resuce workers who died in the WTC were honored was the observance devoid of reference to the circumstances in which they died or the political repercussions of the event?

Brian:

Thank you for posting this information. I was glad that the Board of Alderman and our community took the time to Honor the life of a 26 year old son of immigrants. I drafted the resolution with extensive consultation with the Martinez family to express all THEIR personal wishes and what they felt will best honored the life of their son, Staff Sgt. Misael Martinez. Out of respect for the loss of the Martinez family I suggest that the Iraq conflict be discuss in a separate post. Dan, thank you for your kind words. I know that this political/philanthropic action on our behalf meant a whole lot to the family.

John Herrera

I wish someone would show me the words "a US pullout within one year if the Iraqi government requested it" in the resolution.

I guess Ruby that you fail to see the politics in the Carrboro resolution. Catherine DeVine saw it, and I think the author of the resolution intended it.

Now how am I making this political?

More to the local point - it doesn't sound like the bereaved family & friends had a problem with acknowledging the tragic overall situation by calling for troop withdrawal and sensible immigration policies.

It's irrelevant whether the war is unjust or not. Calling for an "immediate withdrawal" sounds hopelessly uninformed.

Wayne

I also remain optimistic that while there are many in uniform, no one is hopelessly so.

I wish they would have passed a resolution to lower my taxes at the same time, that would have been equally crass, but at least it would not have insulted the family of the slain soldier. Fred is right.

"It's especially notable how honorably these sons of immigrant parents are serving the nation."

I couldn't agree more. NPR ran a story on this family last night. It's a touching story that deserves to stand alone, away from any talk of politics.

jmk,

What reaction from the family leads you to state that they were insulted?

Uninformed, not *in uniform*. Cheap play on words.

I remember too vividly the Vietnam era when we protested violently against the war and treated returning soldiers so badly they organized Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

I hope this thread, and OP in general, can be a place where we honor people. That was my main intention in writing this post. I apologize if I fanned the flames of a heated discussion. I did not intend to disrespect anyone. Love and respect.

Does anyone know more about the Latino Community Credit Union of North Carolina scholarship in Sgt. Martinez's name? Such as where to make donations? I would love to promote it here.

Brian,

The heated discussion was not your fault in any way. The context for the death that is being honored was created by others. The heated discussion was a result of respect for intellectual integrity and a healthy effort to understand the context that this tragedy occurred within.

Brian, if you read my first post yesterday it contained the information that you requested. I think that all you did was focus on my sadness comment, and your assumptions about what I meant.

Sorry Mark C, you have it wrong. We do not honor a soldier's sacrifice by tying his death to a political agenda expressed in a resolution that was never thought through. And not trying to insult the members of the BOA, but I have to wonder if they all understood the ramification of their resolution. Your resolution is what linked "how it should end" to this young man. So I say again, that does not honor a fallen hero.

If this gets censored, so be it.

Fred,

You don't seem to understand that as soon as someone puts on a uniform, he or she is inextricably tied to a political agenda. And all the pretzel logic of political correctness displayed by anti-war progressives who oppose criticism of the Iraq War will not de-link the context from the tragedy.

Mark Chilton doesn't like what I say about what informed people think about the war's end, so decides to censure it. And my whole post was not about the end of the war. Some of it was response to you and Mark M. Saving bandwidth?

Note that other's comments about the war, including Mark's own, are not censured. Mark C, how is your statement on being a Quaker relavent to this thread that is supposed to be about "honor(ing) the service of a young man who died in Iraq?" What does Mark Morcoplos' two recent comments have to do with the alleged thread topic?

Don't be a nanny Mark C.

Wayne
Consistency is Golden

Mark, I'm confused by your last post: who are the "...anti-war progressives who oppose criticism of the Iraq War...?"

Isn't someone who is against the war stating criticism of it by the very nature of his/her stance against the war?

Please clarify. Thanks.