Is nothing sacred?
Schools across the North Country passing bans on cell phones
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During the holidays more than 250,000 wreaths are laid in front of the headstones and monuments at Arlington National Cemetery.
That's humbling.
It speaks to how Arlington is more than just a graveyard, it is hallowed ground, sacred real estate where those who have given their lives to the service of their country can rest eternally.
Presidents, generals, admirals, astronauts and regular privates are all allowed entry.
It is a place every American should visit at least once as a reminder freedom's cost.
When I visited Washington, D.C. for business, I often strolled over to the White House in the evening and stood in awe of what it represented.
And I was in my 40s.
There is something about the city that transfixes me, that makes me proud to be an American.
While covering the National Governor's Conference my senior year in college, I remember taking a past-midnight tour of the monuments with my student-newspaper colleagues. From the White House to the Jefferson Memorial and on to Lincoln Memorial, lingering under the statue of Lincoln and not wanting the night to end.
Our entire lives were ahead of us and I was optimistic as a young journalist hoping to change the world.
Over the years I returned to Washington many times, but it was Arlington that drew me back over and over again.
The first time was as a 13-year-old on my eighth-grade class trip with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy still fresh in my memory.
The last time was five years ago when my son and I made a D.C. pilgrimage to see the Newseum - the greatest newspaper museum ever - one more time before it closed. But I no longer was awed by the White House, or the Supreme Court or many of the other monuments.
But it was Arlington that delivered again on a strikingly balmy day at the end of December as we walked amidst a quarter-million wreaths. We stopped at the Kennedy gravesites, found the final resting place of the Apollo I astronauts Virgil Grissom and Roger Chaffee and were humbled by the sight of all those wreaths.
It was a special day.
It was a reminder of what a special country we used to have.
So it especially troublesome for me last week when former President Donald Trump used Arlington National Cemetery as a backdrop for a political ad in violation of the law.
Federal law says “The Executive Director shall ensure the sanctity of public and private memorial and ceremonial events" and Part C of the statute reads "Memorial services and ceremonies at Army National Military Cemeteries will not include partisan political activities."
Trump was there to lay a wreath on a solider killed in Afghanistan, but he was also there to shoot a commercial. That is not only inappropriate, it is illegal.
So when a cemeteruyu worker tried to stop the filming, Trump campaign aides pushed her aside.
It was unseemly.
And un-American.
New York Times columnist David Brooks said on PBS Newshour Friday evening "It was the worst thing Donald Trump has ever done - in the past 48 hours."
The next thing is always worse than the previous thing when it comes to Trump.
Even after the incident blew up into a controversy, the Trump campaign still posted the video on social media as a criticism of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and the Afghanistan withdrawal that Trump negotiated.
The video is solemn and appropriate, until the voice over begins the political message.
The U.S, Army took the unprecedented step of defending the cemetery employee with the Associated Press reporting, "This employee acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption,” the Army spokesman’s statement said. “This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked.”
For me the presidential election stopped being about the issues a long time ago.
It is about morality.
It is about having a country we can be proud of again. If you support Trump, you are showing a failure of your own morals, your own inability to do the right thing.
Each December, volunteers lay out those 250,000 wreaths on each and every gravestone for those who defended our country in all our wars.
That should never be a campaign ad for anything.
More cell phone bans
Following up on my column about the growing number of school districts considering cell phone bans - Cambridge has already banned cell phones - North Country Public Radio reported this past week that Lake Placid is banning cell phones for this school year as well.
It joins Malone, Saranac Lake, Morristown, Lisbon and Sackets Harbor in the North Country.
NCPR reported that a Pew Research Poll found that 70 percent of high school teachers say smart phones are a major distractions in the classroom. It also found teachers against banning cell phones.
Check out its story. It is worth the read.
Cemetery tour
The Chapman Museum will hold its annual Cemetery Tour on Saturday, September 28 with a variety of tours beginning at 10 a.m., including two golf-cart tours.
The tour will include local actors telling the stories of prominent citizens from Glens Falls' past at Pine View Cemetery off Quaker Rd. in Queensbury.
Tickets are $20 ($15 for Chapman Museum members) and you can reserve your tickets by calling 518 793-2826.
Balloon time of year
Mark Donahue, organizer of the Adirondack Balloon Festival, and Amy Lapoint, author of Pilot Memoirs, will be speaking on Wednesday, Sept. 11 at The Chapman Museum for a discussion about the balloon festival as it begins its second half-century this year.
They will focus on the rich history of the balloon festival and take us on a behind-the -scenes look at what it takes to put on the event every year.
To register for the free program, call 518 793-2826.
Another plus
Those of us that have lived here for decades regularly cite it as the best place to live in the country - winters be damned.
Warren County shared in its newsletter this week that U.S. News and World Reports rated the county among the top 10 percent of the "healthiest" counties in the United States. It was rated 304th out of 3,143 counties and had moved up 53 spots from the last review two years ago.
The magazine looked at not only health metrics, but also public safety, educations, economy and access to housing.
Revolutionary talk
Marie Williams, author of Loyalists in the Adirondacks: The Fight for Britain in the Revolutionary War will be speaking on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at Crandall Public Library at 7 p.m.
The program is presented by Crandall Public Library and the Warren County Historical Society.
The program is described as: "From the outbreak of the Revolutionary War to the summer of 1777, Loyalists and Patriot forces wove their way through the mountains and valleys of the Adirondacks, vying for land and control of the key waterways of the Hudson River, Lake Champlain, the St. Lawrence River and the New York Harbor. The majority of New Yorkers, particularly those who occupied the Adirondack Mountain Region and other wilderness frontier regions, were either Loyalist or neutral throughout the war. Their stories, motivations and actions are often overlooked out of a false impression that most colonists were unified in favor of American independence. Williams recounts the harrowing efforts, battlefield endeavors and conflicted hearts and minds of the forgotten British and Loyalists during the revolutionary era in the Adirondacks."
Williams is an independent historian living in upstate New York. She also hosts the podcast The Half-Pint Historian.
The event is free and open to the public.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
The man is subhuman.......another image that has stayed with me is the time he mocked a physically challenged reporter. I hope more charges are brought against him.
This quote came to mind this weekend, reading all of the dissembling and lying about Arlington:
“A person’s tongue can give you the taste of his heart.“ - Ibn al-Qayyim