Showing posts with label veterans. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Are veterans on your "hit list" too, Gov Romney?

Governor Mitt Romney caught off guard by "hidden" video as he spoke to rich donors. It's reported that former President Jimmy Carter's grandson "leaked" the video.

Mike to Mitt: Are military veterans on your hit list too?

An Open Letter to Governor Mitt Romney,

Do you really believe that I and my fellow veterans of America's wars are freeloaders - "handout victims" as you called us in your speech. If you do, I resent your remarks and your beliefs. Of course, I know you were caught "off guard" by a video of you speaking to raise more money for your campaign for president. You thought no one other than your pals were watching but the grandson of Jimmy Carter leaked the video to the American people and the world.

I am a veteran of the U. S. Army in the Vietnam War where I served as a combat correspondent and photojournalist and would bet you 100 shares of stock that I've seen more 'action' in my life than you have. I also served as a civilian journalist, receiving national awards for investigative and community service reporting. I protect your freedom so say offensive and false things about me and my fellow veterans. And, being a reporter on the streets of America is a form of combat too.

"Handouts?" I, and millions of my fellow veterans, especially of combat, are alive and functioning as well as I can be today thanks to the medical and financial services provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. During one of my illnesses I also received temporary cash support for a year, your so-called "handouts" from the state of Ohio, in part using federal dollars. Does this make me a "victim" Gov. Romney? Well, if I am a victim, I am proud of it, proud to serve my country.

You said that you were speaking about the supporters of President Obama in the presidential election when you referred to the "victims" of "handouts." As a journalist I do not publicly support any candidate. What I do in the voting booth is my business, but you can be assured that unless you apologize and explain yourself you have lost my vote for good and I would bet the vote of many fellow combat veterans who needed or will need help from their country.

Sincerely,
Mike Marcellino
Veteran, U. S. Army, II Field Force, Vietnam War, 1967-68 Four Campaign Stars/Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry
folk music artists #26 Folk charts, New York City (ReverbNation)
author, "Notebook Writer Blog" #2Poetry #3Writing #5Music #8Photography #10Politics
Host/producer, "Notebook Writer" Internet radio show on writers, Red River Radio, Blog Talk Radio

Washington Post, September 18, 2012

On Letterman, Obama says Romney ‘writing off’ much of country

Video: As President Obama gets ready to appear on David Letterman’s show on Tuesday, we take a look back at what the interviews on late-night television have revealed about the first family.

By Amy Gardner, Updated: Tuesday, September 18, 6:26 PM

NEW YORK — President Obama responded Tuesday to controversial remarks by Republican Mitt Romney by suggesting that his opponent was “writing off a big chunk of the country” and was wrong to suggest that nearly half of Americans think of themselves as victims entitled to a handout from government.
In an interview on “The Late Show with David Letterman” taped Tuesday afternoon in New York and scheduled to air nationally later in the evening, Obama said:

Comments

Personal Post

Video

The Washington Post’s Anne Kornblut looks at how Mitt Romney’s remarks in a video from a campaign fundraiser might hurt his campaign’s efforts to reach certain demographic groups.

Mitt Romney, caught on videotape

Glenn Kessler SEP 17

FACT CHECKER | How factual were his statements in the video of his private speech to donors?

Obama’s real opponent in 2012

Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake 7:37 AM ET

THE FIX | Without conservative outside groups, this might not be a close race at all.

Mitt Romney’s darkest hour

Chris Cillizza SEP 17

THE FIX | The candidate’s comments about the "47 percent" come at the worst possible time for him politically.

“When I won in 2008, 47 percent of the American people voted for John McCain,” Obama said. “They didn’t vote for me and what I said on election night was: ‘Even though you didn’t vote for me, I hear your voices, and I’m going to work as hard as I can to be your president.’”
Obama said presidential candidates are always under the microscope and are going to make mistakes. Letterman reminded the president of his own gaffe in the 2008 campaign, when he spoke of conservatives who “cling to guns or religion.” But Obama noted that he immediately apologized for the statement — an apparent contrast to Romney’s defense of his comments, which Romney called “inelegant” but reflective of his views.
The statements in question came to light on Monday, when Mother Jones released videos from a private fundraiser in Florida in May in which Romney dismisses Obama’s supporters as “victims” who take no responsibility for their livelihoods and who think they are entitled to government handouts. He said that his job “is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Mother Jones released the full video, including controversial remarks showing the Republican nominee saying that Palestinians have “no interest whatsoever” in reaching a peace agreement with Israel.
In the Letterman interview, Obama said traveling the country he never meets anyone ”who doesn’t believe in the American dream.”
“There are not a lot of people out there who think they’re victims,” he said. “There are not a lot of people who think they’re entitled to something.”
But, he added: “We’ve got some obligations to each other, and there’s nothing wrong with us giving each other a helping hand so that that single mom’s kid, even after all the work she’s done, can afford to go to college.”
Tuesday was Obama’s second appearance on the Letterman show since he became president. First lady Michelle Obama was a guest on the show earlier this month. The program was scheduled to air at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The president was Letterman’s sole guest Tuesday, and he sat for a wide-ranging interview that included a few lighter moments as well as more serious ones. Letterman lingered on a number of serious topics, asking Obama to explain the nation’s budget crisis at length and to comment on the gridlock that much of the nation sees in Washington.
“There’s more than enough blame to spread around,” Obama said. “These problems have been around for a decade or more.”
Asked about the violence in Libya last week that led to the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Obama said the administration’s top priorities now are to “refortify” security at American embassies abroad and to bring the murderers to justice. He criticized the offending anti-Muslim video that triggered the violence, but he said the video was not an excuse for violence.

Friday, November 13, 2009

The making of music

A band of brothers
by Mike Marcellino

Eight weeks ago, a writing and musical journey began when I again hooked up with an old Army buddy, Tomas Texino. We served in the Vietnam War together. Tomas makes a mandolin sing, plays guitar, writes fascinating and funny stories about bluegrass music and whatever else he feels like, like stuff about Rozz Savage rowing around the world and playin' a one-on-one game of basketball against his buddy Bill Monroe shootin' at a hoop that comes outa the trunk of Bill's Cadillac.

My friend played in a cool bluegrass band, "Salt Run," for many years out of St. Augustine, Florida. Never forget our time together as far up in he mountains in Virginia as you can get, for the Carter Family Memorial Concert years ago.

This September, I found Tomas once again after a 10 year absence and we began to see what we could do with some of the poetry songs I'd written.

Well, out came "Amelia Earhart, soft silver wings" about the fearless aviator, just in time for the release of "Amelia," starring Hilary Swank. I didn't know about the film, but got a MySpace message from her cousin, saying she liked the piece and that she isn't biased and thinks Hilary will win another Academy Award.

Haven't seen "Amelia" yet. Was waiting for my special invite to a private screening. The film kinda got ripped up by most critics, but then that's why they call them critics.

Tomas played mandolin on the song, composed it, threw in a bass. Singer songwriter David Dowling was on his guitar for the recording at a house in St. Augustine. We had dinner together; it was a beautiful night overlooking America's oldest city the Spanish settled in the 1600s. That recording night was priceless.

Along the way I got back to my first love - surfing. Body surfed nearly every day for five weeks. Caught one four foot wave and shot right out the curl.

Then Tomas and I did another piece, "Las Cruces," about living on a tiny horse ranch in the desert hills in southeast New Mexico, near the border. It brought me back to wandering the streets of Juarez, Mexico, just a few months after getting out of Vietnam and the Army. I had served as a combat correspondent and photojournalist and met Tomas as he worked helping refugees build a new life and a new village. They called it "civic action" back then. I think we need a lot more "civic action" and a lot less killing in places like Afghanistan, Iraq and the streets and Army bases in America.

To record "Flatbush" with musician Randall Leddy I left the surf and hopped a train to New York City. Randall's father served in the Special Forces in the U.S. Army. "Flatbush" is about a writer's view of life in the West Indian neighborhood in Brooklyn. Special thanks goes to Randall's wife, Stacy Rock, a very talented, emerging singer songwriter. Yes, that's her read name and she comes from a small town in the middle of Montana. Now she's making passionate, music in New York, mixing her classical background with pop,, rock and folk.

On the way to Brooklyn, I had sort of a homecoming in Baltimore were I was "born and early raised" (a phrase from a song I wrote, "Full moon Baltimore" recorded by my first band, Split Pea/ce in Cleveland). I performed a solo gig without music at the Baltimore Hostel for a poetry series, "Last Sunday, Last Rights," put on by Pat King, the go to guy for Outsider Writers, a writers' cooperative I've been a part of the past couple of years. After all these years, I discovered the original "Washington Monument" isn't in DC but in Baltimore.

When I got back down to Florida, limping as my left calf kept freezing up, Tomas and I finished work on our band's fourth song, the hardest one to do - "The Walls of Fire."

In "The Walls of Fire" I traced the sacrifice and courage of American soldiers from the Civil War through World War II, Korea, Vietnam Iraq and Afghanistan. We started on it before my trip to New York City but it sounded just too sad.

Tomas figured that Irish tin whistles were just the sound to turn horror into a band of brothers tackling anything and everything thrown at them. Mandolin and a drum are also in the piece.

Now, I'm wonderin' just what's going on. In eight weeks, the Mike Marcellino Band has reached 64 among the Top Folk Artist in New York City on the ReverbNation charts. Not sure what that means, except there are 400,000 bands on that music site and we also rose to 654 in the United States and 965 in the world.

We reached a milestone today, recording the 9000th play on our MySpace music site.

We appreciate people listening and reading the lyrics.

We released "The Walls of Fire" on Veterans Day. It's an important piece to us, taking us back to 1968 when we served together in Vietnam. Not sure how we survived; just lucky. Many of our brothers in arms didn't.

Looking down the road, we hope to put out our first CD, play some paid gigs. No matter what happens with the band, I'll be getting a surf board by spring.

A national award winning newspaper reporter and congressional and mayor aide, I now have my sights set on being a rock star. Trouble is my eyesight is fading.

We do appreciate people listening to our music and especially their comments. We hope you'll continue, some day buy a CD or pay a few bucks to hear us play.

After the release of "The Walls of Fire" on Veterans Day I was surprised to get a comment on ReverbNation from a musician, Destination Dawn from Ocala, Florida.

Later I found that "DD" is the Top Alternative Artists in the world on ReverbNation with tens of thousands of fans. She wrote this about our band -

("Flatbush") Cool spoken word!!!Great music and interesting revelations!!!

("The Walls of Fire") has great background music and effects that befit the deep revealing words. You have an intriguing style.

Wishing you all the best and much continued success with all your endeavors!!!
Much Love,
DD

Hope DD doesn't mind that I included her last sentence. Her comments are both very sweet and quite encouraging.

Didn't ask her if she makes any money from her music though.

By the way, thanks to the modern techie miracles I finally figured out, you may listen to Mike Marcellino right on the ReverbNation Widget on my Networked Blog, "The Point of the Whole Thing."

Here I thought a "widget" had something to do with croquet.

Band of brothers, by Mike Marcellino, copyright 2009