2007 Candidate
Statments
Charting VVA's future. [read
the candidate's statements ]
In the Emancipator’s Footsteps: A
Guide to Springfield
In the year 3000 Anno Domini, archeologists descended
on the city of Springfield, Illinois, to study its religious
and cultural traditions. Initial studies had indicated that
although religious traditions were in line with Christian
teachings common to the post-Industrial American Midwest,
there had also evolved the worship of a demigod, revered
universally, whose image was seen everywhere.
It was rare
for residents of the metropolis to perform social functions
outside the presence of the demigod’s gaze.
Nearly every park was graced with depictions of the saint;
every restaurant, every bar, every commercial and government
office, every school and church and brothel either included
his image or was named for him.
This Springfield icon was Abraham Lincoln. He exemplified
the virtues of compassion, intellectual clarity, righteousness,
and the flowering of backwoods virility. Researchers wondered
whether the citizenry had made these virtues their own. [read
complete article]
The Giver And The Taker
Harry Spiller During The Vietnam War
We’ve all watched the scene in movies: The car pulls
up in the driveway, a sharp-looking soldier, sailor, airman,
or Marine steps out of the car, accompanied perhaps by a
priest or minister. The door to the home opens, and a mother,
father, or child-toting wife opens the door. The door opens
to Death.
Harry Spiller of Marion, Illinois, played this role many
times while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was 21 years
old and newly returned from his first tour in Vietnam when
he was assigned recruiting duty in Cape Girardeau, Mo. It
was a prestigious job, especially for one so young and with
so little experience. But there was another duty. Spiller
also was required to make casualty calls to families in the
areas where he was recruiting. Although Spiller spent ten
years in the Marines, these three years doing casualty notifications
turned his life upside down and changed it forever. [read
complete article]
Shots in the Dark: Unanswered Questions
Plague The Military Vaccine Program
The Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program (www.anthrax.osd.mil)
is emerging from a three-year hiatus after Federal Judge
Emmet G. Sullivan ordered the Department of Defense to suspend
anthrax vaccinations in May 2004. Judge Sullivan ruled the
anthrax vaccine was an experimental drug that had not been
subjected to appropriate testing or cleared for human use
by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration. Notably, Judge
Sullivan found that hundreds of service members received
the inoculations without informed consent, a direct violation
of the regulatory statutes conferring protection to human
subjects involved in medical research—and a clear breach
of medical ethics. [read
complete article]
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