We first met Karen Meredith in Crawford, Texas last Summer where she was one of many Gold Star family members standing with Cindy Sheehan who’d also lost her only son in Iraq. We interviewed Karen live [mp3] from Camp Casey on The BRAD SHOW about her son, Kenneth Michael Ballard, and her courageous stand against this war. We continue to both wear and cherish the duplicate dog tag of Ken’s that she gave us while we were there, and think of both of them often.
On September 9, 2005, nearly a year and a half after she learned of the death of Ken in Najaf, the Army informed her that her son’s death was an accident. They had known for a year, but failed to tell her. We blogged about that here.
What follows, is a letter Karen shared with us, as written to mark the occasion of yet another Memorial Day spent without her son. We’re pleased to share it with you on yet another Memorial Day as our troops continue to fight and die by the thousands in this continuing, senseless war…
On Memorial Day, we raise our flags; we want to show our patriotism. We have a holiday from work and we have BBQ’s with our friends and families. For some, it is a day to save some money at the mall- 15% off- Memorial Day sale! When we celebrate those events, we ignore the origins of Memorial Day. Memorial Day is the day that we, as a country pay our respects and remember those soldiers who were killed or who died in service to America. For politicians it is a day to participate in civic activities and to visit cemeteries. Politicians articulate our sorrow as a nation.
I want to tell you about one soldier that will be remembered this Memorial Day. 1Lt Kenneth Michael Ballard of Mountain View, California was 26 years old when he was killed in a fierce battle in Najaf, Iraq on 5.30.04. His gravestone at Arlington National Cemetery is plain. That headstone in Section 60, Site 8006 tells when he was born and when he died. It describes his valor and heroism with his medals, his 3 Bronze Stars, 2 with valor and his Purple Heart.
But you need to know more than that about Ken. You need to know this because you sent my only child to his untimely death. You are keeping our members of the military in harm’s way in Iraq and you have the power to bring them home and to stop this senseless killing…
A mother wants to know her child is loved, but she doesn’t want to find that out at his funeral when he is only 26 years old. And she surely doesn’t want to watch his 26 year old friends bury their best friend. There is just something not right with that picture, but there is nothing right about this story.
A mother wants to watch her son grow to be the man he would have been. She wants to see him gaze into the eyes of the woman who will be his wife, and a mother wants to dance with her son at his wedding. She wants to hold his firstborn, counting the fingers and toes of this, her first grandchild. Would that baby have had the same cleft in their chin- just like their daddy? I’ll never know because my baby came home in a box covered with a flag.
My son took an oath to defend the Constitution and to obey the orders of the President of the United States. In return, his Commander in Chief and this country owed him the TRUTH about the mission and why he and his men were going into harms way. They should never be sent into combat without suitable equipment or proper training. They should never be sent to into war without proper planning and without an exit strategy. They should never be sent into hostilities unless it is our last option. In March of 2003, there were other options.
You sent my only child to his untimely death. You are keeping our members of the military in harm’s way in Iraq and you have the power to bring them home and to stop this pointless killing.
When you visit that cemetery to participate in Memorial Day ceremonies and proclaim the words of a grateful nation, look beyond the names on the headstones. Know there is a loving, broken family left behind every single one. Think about Ken. Look at his face; look at his eyes. He is one of 2463 US soldiers to die in this illegal war so far. He was the 100th soldier from California to die in Iraq. Ken is not a number, he’s not a statistic. Think about Ken and the life that was stolen from our family when you vote to continue funding this war. It is time to end the lies. It is time to put up a vigorous fight to come up with an exit strategy that will end this war now. Do that because it is the right thing to do. Do it for Ken and for me. No other family should have to travel this hellish journey.
Where will you be on Memorial Day? What will you do to really honor our soldiers? I will be at Arlington National Cemetery on this Memorial Day 2006. It will have been two years since Ken was brutally killed.
Karen Meredith
Proud Mom of Lt Ken Ballard- KIA 5.30.04
www.ltkenballard.com
http://gsmso.blogspot.com/
Gold Star Families Speak Out
Is there enough detergent and disinfectant out there to clean the soil off our flag ?
On this memorial day, people trying to find good news in Iraq were blown away by people wanting no occupying forces in their county, or perhaps it was one religious faction targeting another, or perhaps a situation where sunni shiite cross fire took out some more Americans (link here).
Meanwhile a convoy of US soldiers in Afganistan drove over civilian vehicles and kept going, so a riot broke out (link here).
All the mothers want is for those who send their offspring into battle to have an honorable reason for so doing.
Lies and deceit are not honorable.
All is well,… our fearless leader "Honors"
our war dead. Okay,… now let’s achieve victory
in the IRAQI WAR !
I am curious why none of the media covers the most important aspect of the Malvo shootings. If you look at Newspapers on the dates when the shootings are underway you discover something I find quite interesting. The shootings begin to dominate the news the day before
the debate on the Iraq war starts and they catch them the day after the declaration of war??? If you ask most people "do you remember the debate about starting the second Iraq war", they will all answer "yes of course". But if you followup with the question "name one point in the debate, a speech by a Senator or where their senator stood", nada.
Almost no one noticed any aspect of the most important debate in the last 50 years?
And interesting and odd fact. No one has done a story on what the real impact of the shootings were. It was to virtually eliminate the war debate from the media.
The special forces background of the senior member of the pair also seems to get short shrift.
Smells a little fishy to me based on what little I know about it. At minimum its a very significant part of the story, i.e. that a common murderer had such an impact on our political process. Why is nobody covering this obvious fact?
Dan Pride
Daniel Pride #4
The media is ever more a propaganda arm of the republican dictatorship (link here).
Anything that does not fit the model of the news is a conspiracy theory.
Even tho we have strong evidence that when ordered to, the military will commit terrorists acts against American citizens (link here), it takes more than speculation.
The fact that something can happen does not mean it did happen. And unless and until more than only suspicion is present, it is nothing more than speculation.
Dredd: People have to shift their TV news habits from ANBCBSNNX to Democracy NOW! news. I know people are busy, they need a "push" to change already their already existing habit of watching TV news. They just need to watch it once, and they will be hooked, and know they are being mislead by the corporate-controlled TV news. Just once!!! And everyone who does watch Democracy NOW! TV news, have to start telling everyone they know to watch it. It’s about changing your habits. Most people who watch ANBCBSNNX need a "push", that’s all. A push from people like us. There are those of us who took the time to research this, and others are just to busy to know any better, that’s what they are relying on.
And someday, when enough people are watching Democracy NOW! news, then ANBCBSNNX will have to explain the difference between their news and Democracy NOW! ‘s news.
I was drafted and went to war in Vietnam in 1969. I was infantry, came home on my back with a Purple Heart and about 90-120 days of experience being scared to death and knowing I was coming home in a box.
I saw 30+ young Americans from my outfit alone die for nothing. We knew it was nothing, just like this mess we are in now is for nothing. We had the propaganda rolling back in those days too, but nothing like the hatred this country has catapulted on those crying enough. I went because I couldn’t believe we were doing all those terrible things they were saying back home. I didn’t think Americans could be that satanic. I was dead ass wrong!!
Not sure exactly how long Vietnam lasted, but I believe the final loss of life was around 39000 young Americans that died FOR NOTHING!!
Here we are again. THIS is what I recall on this Memorial Day. For those brave that have died, I am so sorry for you and the loss to all those near to you. But when is this country going to start doing what is right, and put an end to this senseless pain and suffering WE are responsible for? We all know how this is going to end. What lesson are we supposed to learn this time that we didn’t learn last time?
"Don’t draw comparisons to Vietnam and Iraq", they say. I wonder why not? Different places, different times..but the same stupid ass reasons for continuing this ridiculous loss of life. Only 2400+ dead today, and 20,000 injured. That’s nice. We’ve cut down on how quickly we feed the death machine. But the game is still the same. How many will be in those tallies come 2013? Damn those with the power to cause this. Damn them all to an eternity of hell.
The Nation,.. article by John Nichols
"My Soldiers, My Veterans"
The wisdom of wars can be debated on any day, and this column has not hesitated to question the thinking — or, to be more precise, the lack of thinking — that has led the United States to the current quagmire in Iraq.
But on Memorial Day, it is well to pause from the debate to remember those whose lives have been lost, not merely to the fool’s mission of the contemporary moment but to all those battles – noble and ignoble – that have claimed the sons and daughters of this and every land.
After the bloodiest and most divisive of America’s wars, the poet Walt Whitman offered a dirge for two soldiers of the opposing armies — Civil War veterans, buried side by side. His poem is an apt reminder that, when the fighting is done, those who warred against one another often find themselves in the same place. It is appropriate that we should garland each grave, understanding on this day above all others that wars are conceived by presidents and prime ministers, not soldiers.
It is appropriate, as well, and perhaps a bit soothing, to recall Whitman’s wise words:
The last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finish’d Sabbath,
On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking,
Down a new-made double grave.
.
Lo, the moon ascending,
Up from the east the silvery round moon,
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,
Immense and silent moon.
.
I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key’d bugles,
All the channels of the city streets they are flooding,
As with voices and with tears.
.
I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.
.
For the son is brought with the father,
(In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,
Two veterans son and father dropt together,
And the double grave awaits them.)
.
And nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive,
And the daylight o’er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.
.
In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin’d,
(‘Tis some mother’s large transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing.)
.
O strong dead-march you please me!
O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.
.
The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.
Bush Budget Increases Health Care Costs For 1 Million Veterans. For the fourth year in a row, the budget increases health care costs for 1 million veterans by imposing new fees for veterans, costing them more than $2.6 billion over five years. It would double the co-payment for prescription drugs from $8 to $15, and impose an enrollment fee of $250 a year for category 7 and 8 veterans, who make as little as $26,902 a year.
Administration Continues To Block Low Income Veterans From Enrolling In VA Health Care. On January 17, 2003, the Bush Administration stopped enrolling new Priority 8 veterans for VA medical care, and the President’s budget continues this restrictive policy. This has prevented 1 million veterans, who make as little as $26,902 a year, from enrolling in VA health care.
Refuses To End The Disabled Veterans’ Tax. The President’s budget fails to repeal the Disabled Veterans Tax, which forces disabled military retirees to give up one dollar of their pension for every dollar of disability pay they receive. The budget continues to require nearly 400,000 military retirees with service-connected disabilities to continue to pay the Disabled Veterans’ Tax.
Fails To End The Military Families’ Tax. The Survivor Benefit Plan penalizes survivors, mostly widows, of those killed as a result of combat. These widows lose their survivor benefits if they receive Dependency and Indemnity Compensation benefits because their spouse has died of a service-connected injury. The President’s budget forces these 53,000 spouses to continue to pay this unfair tax, even though these families have made the greatest sacrifice for our country.
Mental Health Services For Iraqi Veterans Fail To Meet Growing Need. An Army study shows that about one in six soldiers in Iraq report symptoms of major depression, serious anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, and some experts predict that the number eventually requiring mental health treatment could exceed 170,000. Up to one-third of Iraq war veterans are suffering from some degree of PTSD. [UPI, 1/27/06] And yet, the President’s budget calls for only about 14 percent more for post-traumatic stress disorder and mental health services than last year.
Cuts Funding For Medical And Prosthetic Research. It cuts $13 million from medical and prosthetic research this year. This would set the research grant program back years, just as many of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are coming home with terrible injuries that require this expertise.
Michael #7
My protest is not about troops who faithfully serve because of their beliefs, or those of us who protested and went to prison for our beliefs (many of you when you came back joined us, like Kerry).
It is about the oil barons who have blind faith in the military industrial complex. Which like any complex of that sort, is a terrible disease for a nation to have.
The president, the secretary of war, the pentagon, and the generals, and the rubber stamp congress. These are the main carriers of the disease.
They are the ones I fault.
They know they are lying young Americans into a war to line not the pockets of the young Americans, but to line the pockets of the already filthy rich.
Keep getting your story out. People of your nation need to know. Thank you for serving today. Without killing. Thank you.
#7
Your story is a familiar one. You are not alone.
What pains me, is that the sorrow and regret that you have expressed (and that I have heard daily from Viet Nam vets) I am now hearing daily from Iraq war vets.
Truly, we never learn…
I just have to post this again.
This is an email exchange between combat correspondent Joe Galloway and Rummy’s press spokesman, Larry Dirita, that escalates in frustration & anguish as Galloway tries his best to explain his views to dirita.
Galloway sent the exchange to General Barry McCaffrey, who thanked him for his moral courage & said
"…This is the most powerful stuff hands down I have ever read about this war…".
link
Joan #12
"This is the most powerful stuff hands down I have ever read about this war"
Could that be because they have not followed the advice of Big Dan #6?
Too bad Comcast won’t put Democracy Now on their basic package, I have to listen to it on the radio!
It is the VETERAN, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the VETERAN, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the VETERAN, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the VETERAN, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble.
It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the VETERAN, not the politician, Who has given us the right to vote.
It is the VETERAN, who salutes the Flag,
It is the VETERAN, who serves under the Flag.
IT IS THE VETERAN WHO DESERVES OUR UTMOST RESPECT AND HONOR.
Do we have that to give to our nation’s VETERANS?
It is the chicken hawks and warmongers who send our military off to unjust wars under false pretenses. They (chicken hawks) scream support and honor our troops,.. and then behind their backs cut every veteran program imaginable. Refuse to provide the proper protective equipment for our troop in the battle field so they can come home alive.
Chicken Hawk Link: GET A CLUE
PEACE ON EARTH
GOOD WILL TOWARD ALL
Learn Peace, NOT War
Some are evangelists for the god of war, and others are evangelists for PEACE.
The doctrines and precepts of the evangelists of war are death, destruction, invasion, propaganda, killing, maiming, fear, insanity, depravity, murder, massacre, hatred, and torture.
The doctrines and precepts of the evangelists of peace are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
PEACE OUT !!
National Ledger: Gold Star Mothers and Blue Star Mothers
How wonderful of Mike J to distribute freedoms all around the world!
How very nice!
Wonder what it was like before the US existed 200 years ago? Must have been very said without Mike J.
No freedom or democracy anywhere … wow bet all those nations existing for thousands of years before that just could not wait til Mike J came along and granted freedom for everyone!
Yeah Mike J … bringer of freedom … yea …