Here's a Houston-area girl who's shown herself to be a hero. Hooray for Monica Lin Brown!
Dodging insurgent gunfire and mortars, a 19-year-old Lake Jackson soldier used her body as a shield to save the lives of five injured comrades following a roadside bomb that struck her convoy last spring in Afghanistan.Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown's act of bravery has earned her the Silver Star, making her only the second woman since World War II to receive the medal. The Silver Star is the nation's third-highest military award given for gallantry in combat.
''She just did what she was trained to do," her grandmother, Katy Brown, said from her Lake Jackson home on Sunday.
The Army medic was part of a four-vehicle convoy patrolling near Jani Kheil in the eastern province of Paktia when a bomb struck one of the Humvees on April 25, military officials said.
After the explosion, Brown went through insurgent gunfire and mortars to reach five wounded soldiers. She used her body to shield the injured soldiers as she administered aid and helped drag them to safety, the military said.
Read the whole thing.
Robert Kent writes to update us about the ongoing disgrace of the American Library Association's studied and stunning silence on repression in Cuba.
Critics charge that comments by Anthony Lewis, a distinguished guest speaker at the American Library Association's January conference in Philadelphia, are being censored by the ALA. At a sold-out ALA conference event held at the National Constitution Center on Jan. 14, Lewis spoke about his long career defending civil liberties and his new book, "Freedom for the Thought That We Hate."A notable feature of Anthony Lewis's speech was his call for the ALA to defend members of an independent library movement who are imprisoned in Cuba. In a challenge to government control of information, since 1998 volunteers in Cuba have opened more than 200 libraries offering public access to uncensored books. Following secret police raids and one-day trials, several of the librarians are serving 20-year jail terms. Cuban courts have ordered the burning of book collections seized from the independent librarians, including classics such as Orwell's "Animal Farm."
"I just urge you not to take that lightly," Anthony Lewis told his ALA audience. "I think there can't be anything worse than putting librarians in prison because of their being librarians and giving people books to read. So please don't ignore the issue. That's from my point of view, even if you don't like the librarians or you don't like Cuba or whatever it is you don't like, its 'freedom for the thought that we hate.'" In a question-and-answer period following his speech, Lewis added: "Cuban librarians who have been in prison are entitled to the utmost support from this organization."
Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and International PEN are demanding the release of the jailed library workers.
In contrast, the ALA has refused to condemn the repression of the Cuban librarians or the court-ordered burning of their books. Critics say the ALA, which often takes a stand on international issues concerning intellectual freedom, is guilty of hypocrisy on the Cuba issue. The critics assert that the ALA's "refusal to take meaningful action" on Cuba is due to the seizure of key ALA offices by a pro-Castro faction which refuses to condemn or even acknowledge the existence of censorship, library raids, book burning and a ban on Internet access in Cuba.
In post-conference coverage of the Philadelphia event, no ALA publication has mentioned Anthony Lewis's criticism of the library group's Cuba policy. Two ALA journalists were present at Anthony Lewis's Jan. 14 speech, and according to a witness they promised to report on Lewis's Cuba-related comments. But the only mention of Cuba in ALA publications since the conference has been a link in "AL Direct," the ALA's online magazine, to a reprint of a 2-year old article attacking Cuba's independent librarians and their defenders abroad. Critics question the accuracy of the article's author, John Pateman, who was awarded a medal by the Cuban government for his past denials of human rights violations on the island; Pateman also denies that the Khmer Rouge were responsible for mass killings in Cambodia.
In addition to Anthony Lewis at the January conference, other speakers at past ALA conferences have spoken out on the ALA's Cuba controversy. Andrei Codrescu, Ray Bradbury ( the author of "Fahrenheit 451") and Madeleine Albright have also used ALA conferences as a venue to call for an end to library repression in Cuba. But critics complain that "entrenched pro-Castro zealots" in the ALA have steadfastly ignored appeals on behalf of Cuba's embattled independent library movement.
"It is sadly ironic," said Robert Kent, a spokesperson for the Friends of Cuban Libraries, a support group for the jailed Cubans, "that zealots within the ALA, an organization which upholds opposition to censorship as its highest ideal, are suppressing comments made by Anthony Lewis at, of all places, an ALA conference. Sadder still, many rank-and-file ALA members are completely oblivious to this travesty of justice and the need to restore the ALA's damaged honor and integrity."
This harsh repression, one of many, in Cuba has been going on for years now. ALA, supposed champion of an inalienable Freedom to Read, has denied its responsibilities during the whole period and continues to stonewall the issue.
Hear a podcast of Lewis's comments here.
Review just some of the sorry history here, here, here, here, and here.
Peggy Noonan today:
What do I think is the biggest reason Mrs. Clinton came back? She kept her own spirits up to the point of denial and worked it, hard, every day. She is hardy, resilient, tough. She is a train on a track, an Iron Horse. But we must not become carried away with generosity. The very qualities that impress us are the qualities that will make her a painful president. She does not care what you think, she will have what she wants, she will not do the feints, pivots and backoffs that presidents must. She is neither nimble nor agile, and she knows best. She will wear a great nation down.
Here are some of John McCain's remarks after winning all the GOP primaries today and clinching the nomination.
[D]uring this campaign I'll travel across the country in cities and rural areas, in communities of all ethnic backgrounds and income levels, offering my ideas and listening to the concerns and advice of Americans.Americans aren't interested in an election where they are just talked to and not listened to; an election that offers platitudes instead of principles and insults instead of ideas; an election that results -- no matter who wins -- in four years of unkept promises and a government that is just a battleground for the next election. Their patience is at an end for politicians who value ambition over principle, and for partisanship that is less a contest of ideas than an uncivil brawl over the spoils of power.
Nothing is inevitable in America. We are the captains of our fate. We're not a country that prefers nostalgia to optimism; a country that would rather go back than forward. We're the world's leader, and leaders don't pine for the past and dread the future. We make the future better than the past. We don't hide from history. We make history. That, my friends, is the essence of hope in America, hope built on courage, and faith in the values and principles that have made us great.
I intend to make my stand on those principles and chart a course for our future greatness, and trust in the judgment of the people I have served all my life. So stand up with me, my friends, stand up and fight for America -- for her strength, her ideals, and her future. The contest begins tonight. It will have its ups and downs. But we will fight every minute of every day to make certain we have a government that is as capable, wise, brave and decent as the great people we serve. That is our responsibility and I will not let you down.
Today is primary day here in Texas. I'll be going momentarily to vote in the GOP contest. As noted earlier, I'm actively supporting John McCain, as well as opposing Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. There are also many local races where good folks deserve our votes and a few weasels deserve the opposite.
Perplexed about where and how? Local voting information for Harris County can be found at HarrisVotes.org.