Sunday, October 30, 2011

God Bless John Culberson

John Culberson
An editorial in the Washington Post of October 28 caught my eye with the headline: "Veterans allowed to rest in peace."  At first, I thought it was a story about repatriation of recently recovered remains of veterans lost during combat.  There are thousands of these cases still being worked by the Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Accounting Command (JPAC), including the case on William Edward Cramsie.  But, no, this was about something even more head-turning.  It really is a little mind numbing and heart warming at the same time.

A couple months back, I received an email forwarded from a friend.  It was a report about the Obama Administration forbidding prayer and other religious references at VA Cemetery services.  Not only that, there were reports of veteran groups like VFW and American Legion getting hassled by a VA Cemetery manager and threatened with expulsion for using a reference to God in what they said during presentations to a widow.  I thought this so bizarre that I immediately put it in the category of skinhead propaganda and hit the delete button.  When I realized that this Post editorial was about that very topic, I was shocked back to reality.  I know that the Post is sometimes a bit biased, though in my personal view with some justification, but I could not believe that they would have bought into something like this without confirmation.

As I read on, it became obvious that the story was true.  Now, I'm not saying that I believe everything that I read in the media, I'm just a tad less gullible than that.  What sealed the veracity for me was the report of John Culberson's involvement.  I happen to know and trust Mr. Culberson through my work with a non-profit advocacy group.  Representative Culberson (TX-7) has helped us on many occasions and is one of an honored few who have been recognized with our highest "Friend" award.  That aside, I read with considerable interest how he jousted with the Administration to change VA policy back to the sane traditional path that it had followed for as far back as my memory reaches, and that's getting to be a far reach.  I won't go into the details because the Post article is linked above and all can read it for themselves.  However, I did want to say here that its refreshing when a legislator has the will to engage and the audacity to demand redress of government excess.  This was not about religion it was about liberty.  We have become far too PC in America and are throwing out the baby with the bath water.  I wish we had more leaders who respect and tolerate personal rights and freedoms and less who insist on defining and enforcing a uniform code of existence.

God Bless John Culberson!