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Steven T. Corneliussen's avatar

Follow-up Washington Post report:

Amid ‘DEI’ purge, Pentagon removes webpage on Iwo Jima flag-raiser

Pages celebrating Navajo code talkers and other minority service members were also erased.

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Andrew D. Verrier's avatar

Thought I would share this. At first (due to the times and, admittedly, their appearance) thought it was going to be some kind of joke, but it was actually sincere, earnest and informative. Would welcome thoughts https://www.threads.net/@titusnation/post/DHT6IPfSA7d?xmt=AQGzez8cwkwZNMVhV-9XjAV0TpTDCpM8Y59lzmcIWGk4jA

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Kevin M. Levin's avatar

I saw that this morning. Thanks for sharing it here, Andrew.

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Steven T. Corneliussen's avatar

In my opinion, you got it right, including the decision to post it. Thanks.

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Andrew D. Verrier's avatar

Just saw this re: the storied, 442nd, the Japanese-American unit in WWII that has so many medal of honor winners. https://www.khon2.com/local-news/army-removes-reposts-website-documenting-japanese-american-wwii-soldiers/

Good that the US Army is outing it back up, but, like with all this stuff about USCT in the civil war , etc….what was the need to take it down in the first place??

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Kevin M. Levin's avatar

It’s a reminder that if you care about this stuff, you need to speak out. Thanks for sharing, Andrew.

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Long Live the ABB's avatar

outstanding take my friend. it’s going to take years to undo this damage, and it’s racist and wrong. but we’ll still be here making and interpreting history

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Kevin M. Levin's avatar

Thanks, Bob and thanks for that little reminder.

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Margaret Waters's avatar

What disturbs me most is the attempt to brand accomplishments and awards by anyone other than a straight white Christian male as “DEI”—insinuating that it is unreal or undeserved.

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Steven T. Corneliussen's avatar

Thanks. I came from a Navy family and served at sea myself. In the 70s, I followed very intently the national discussion about women at sea. Though I was open to the idea, for a long time I focused on what could be seen as drawbacks. Gradually it became obvious that the drawbacks were just minor challenges to be overcome. Now we have a Navy, and a Coast Guard, and a military, that have doubled the size of the pool of smart, capable potential recruits in an age of technological warfare. But we also now have a raving madman for a president, and he has not only ousted the Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he has ousted the female commandant of the Coast Guard and the female chief of naval operations. I would gladly, if I had been young enough, have sailed under the command of either of them. It is appalling that the raving madman has perped what he has perped.

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Kevin M. Levin's avatar

It's disgusting. End of story.

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Mark S Klayman's avatar

With an out of Control administration do you think they will desecrate Arlington and remove the Monument of the Unknown Soldier. Also return the elite guards to duty to cut costs?

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Kevin M. Levin's avatar

Hi Mark,

Great to hear from you. It's hard to imagine such an act of desecration, even for the Trump administration, but I learned long ago that nothing is off the table for these people.

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Steven T. Corneliussen's avatar

I’m glad to see the cautionary note about the danger of allowing the word “erase” to get blurred into the false meaning given to it by Lost Causers whining about the loss of commemorations of the Confederate regime of crimes against humanity. You can’t erase history unless you have a time machine—and a lot of power and influence once you get back into the past to do the erasing.

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Kevin M. Levin's avatar

Well said.

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Malcolm J McKinney's avatar

The fight is ongoing.

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Brad Lewin's avatar

Paul Krugman has a post today on his Substack page called Destroying America’s Brand. Although it is focused principally on economics, that is what is happening here. I’m going to digress but I used to live overseas and the Voice of America was a vital lifeline (especially when you lived in a dictatorship as I did, in Spain). He’s now closed that too. I can’t tell you how upsetting that is to me personally. Without the VOA people in the Iron Curtain wouldn’t have had access to real information. Well, that’s gone now, hopefully not forever.

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