Heroes

[Shapley]

Wouldn't rescuing the flag from burning also be a protected form of speech?

[barfle]

Wouldn't rescuing the flag from burning also be a protected form of speech?

That would depend on who owned the flag.

I certainly have the right to restrict demonstrations that take place with my property.

[Haggis@wk]

The freedom to protest is an important freedom, even if I happen to think the protest is idiotic.

On private property (as the field is/was) there is no "freedom of speech." Your actions are subject to the property owners' rules. Many people aren't aware of that, even though the courts ruled on it decades ago. As an employee, Rick Monday, was legally entitled to take whatever steps he wanted to keep these morons from interferring with the "conduct of business" ie, the game.

I doubt that went through his mind at the time, he was just p****d. Good for him.

[Haggis@wk]

Veterans Assist Indigenous Survivors

In 1986, several hundred natives of Vietnam, called either DeGas or Montagnards, and their families were relocated to the United States as refugees. In the latter part of 1992, close to 400 additional DeGas were granted asylum in the United States and were resettled in North Carolina, particularly in Greensboro, Raleigh, Charlotte and Asheboro.

Were it not for the involvement of retired U.S. Army Special Forces Soldiers, it is unlikely that the Montagnard people would have ever gotten to the U.S.

When the leaders of the Montagnards were brought to the U.S., they were asked where they wanted to settle, according to retired U.S. Army Special Forces Master Sgt. George Clark, who today is President of Save The Montagnard People, Inc. The Montagnards were offered land in Florida and Louisiana, but were uninterested.

The Montagnards reply, said Clark, was that “‘we’ve got to be close to the Special Forces. They grew up with us, we grew up with them.’ That’s why they’re in North Carolina.”

In 1975 there were seven million Montagnards living, said Clark. Today there are approximately 600,000.

“I got involved with these folks way back in the sixties,” said Clark, “I spent a lot of time with them in Vietnam. I stayed with them from ’67 through ’70. April Fool’s Day 1970, I got made a fool of: I found out what an [AK-47 rifle] felt like. When I got shot up, Montagnards jumped on my body to keep me from taking any more hits…How do you pay that back?”

The Special Forces community, active and retired has supported this relocation program since before the U.S. politicians forced us to withdraw from Vietnam. As a success story it’s bittersweet at best, considering the number of surviving Montagnards. To be fair, every government in Vietnam since the end of WWII were complicit in the declines in population whether through neglect or intentional efforts to kill them off.

My childhood next door neighbor, Billy, is a retired SF Warrant Officer (I use to baby-sit him and always thought he was a whiney brat….I haven’t told him that in a few decades) He also is dedicated to helping these people and has an affection for them that is touching.

[Shapley]

Here is a bit on the Montagnards, with a short history.

[Shapley]

[Haggis@wk]

R. Lee Ermy finds bag of cash at Fort Missoula

This is from April but I just saw it today