Opinion
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- Written by: James BlueWolf
I thought long and hard before writing this but decided I had to. As a native in this country, I want to point out that our people have long honored our vets – even since before the US was born. We honored our vets who fought for our peoples against other Native nations, we honored vets who fought in the Revolutionary War against the Americans, we honored our vets who fought in the French-American conflict, we honored our vets who fought in the Civil War, we honored our vets who defended our homelands against US forces and vigilantes, and we have continued to honor our vets who fought in World Wars I and II, in Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, and both Gulf Wars including Afghanistan.
My brothers were Vietnam vets – two were Seals and one was Marine Recon. One thing about them –they never spoke much about their service and would have never allowed someone to call them a “hero.” They preferred the term “survivor” or “veteran.”
All my bros received Purple Hearts and two received multiple medals for injuries received. One made medical history by having the ribs that supported his heart blown out of his chest. He survived, brushed the sand off his still-connected heart, tucked it up underneath his shirt, stood up under fire and carried the wounded soldier next to him back 100 yards under fire to safety. Yet he would never have put up with someone saying he was a hero. That was his job. He signed up for it. He was only a “survivor,” a veteran.
My other brother was forced to lie down, after being shot and bayoneted, on a huge ant hill and let the ants crawl in and out of his nose mouth and ears to convince the VC he was dead so they didn’t execute him after his unit was overrun. The next time he was shot twice behind enemy lines and had to wait three days for rescue. The copter that came for him was shot down at 200 feet and he was the only one who crawled out the flames alive. It took another four days for the ROCS to come get him out. Seven days with two bullets in his side and a helicopter crash to boot. But he too would never tolerate the word “hero” and didn’t like to talk about his service.
Now, John McCain, who I once respected for his service, seems to be basing his whole qualification for being president on his “hero” status and his “war record.”
Let’s look at that record. John Sidney McCain lost five – count ‘em, five – military aircraft in his career. The first was lost while he was practicing his landings in 1958; the second when flying too low and getting tangled in power lines in the Mediterranean; the third in a “flame out’ after coming back in a trainer from an Army-Navy game; the fourth occurred while he was waiting for takeoff on the USS Forestall, where he was hit by a friendly errant missile; and the fifth during only his 23rd combat mission when he was shot down by a surface-to-air missile over Tru Bac Lake near Hanoi.
According to his own testimony he broke down after four days without medical treatment and revealed complete details of his mission and what he knew of American operations to come. After they found out he was an admiral’s son he was sent to a hospital not available to normal American POWS. He gave at least one interview broadcast by Hanoi saying he bombed civilian targets and had received exemplary medical treatment.
McCain served only 20 total hours in combat in his entire career in Vietnam. He received 28 medals –about a medal and half for every hour of combat. One of my brothers had over 8,000 hours of combat and the other had nearly 14,000.
My brothers also had a creed – never be taken alive. For John McCain to be enjoying hero status, and being considered for the highest office simply because he endured captivity only cheapens their memory and their sacrifices.
James BlueWolf lives in Nice.
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- Written by: John Daniels
I am in favor of this change and would like to hear other comment.
John Daniels lives in Lakeport.
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- Written by: Bob Groos
Dinius could not have prevented that accident even without alcohol in his blood. Where is the cop's test? Probably lost!!
It is shameful how hard it is to get "JUSTICE" in this country. A few years back those young men in Oklahoma, too, were completely innocent of murder but spent 12 years on death row. DNA saved them. There, too, the cops and district attorney worked together to nail them. What a system.
Capt. Bob Groos lives in Patchogue, New York.
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- Written by: Joan Moss
I attended this trial every Tuesday in Martinez, and I question the validity of Shannon Edmonds as a witness in the first place. I question how District Attorney Jon Hopkins could use a suicidal criminal’s testimony to charge someone with murder.
Edmonds has an expired medical marijuana card. Witnesses, even Edmonds’ own mother, testified that Edmonds does not tell the truth. Edmonds used minor children to sell marijuana and hired children to trim marijuana, paying them with marijuana instead of money. Children, now young adults, testified to this during the trial. This is a crime Edmonds could go to jail for, according to Stuart Hanlon, Hughes’ attorney.
Hanlon attempted repeatedly in the absence of the jury to have Edmonds impeached as a witness.
Edmonds himself testified that he shot Christian Foster as Foster lay, already shot four times, helpless and twitching.
The jury found Renato Hughes not guilty of most charges, including the murder of his two friends who Edmonds admits he shot after an alleged home invasion.
It was not a home invasion, according to Hughes’ testimony, but an attempted purchase of marijuana that ended in violence and the death of his two friends, shot by Edmonds.
If Renato Hughes is not guilty of the murder of his two friends, who is guilty? How can Jon Hopkins take the word of a drug dealer in charging Renato Hughes in the first place?
It is a tragedy that Dale Lafferty was hit in the head and suffers permanent brain damage due to the conflict inside Edmonds' house on Dec. 7, 2005. It is a tragedy that two lives were lost, due to Shannon Edmonds shooting two young men in the back as they ran from his house.
Yet evidence and testimony proved unclear as to whether or not Lafferty was in the act of assaulting some one else with the metal bat when he himself was struck in the head.
Two eyewitnesses, Karl Taget and Justin Sutch, have yet to be on the stand as to the events on Dec. 7, 2005.
It was proven that a change of venue was necessary for a fair trial. Can Hughes receive a fair sentencing in Lake County when he was granted a change of venue for his trial?
This whole case is a mess, clouded with lost evidence, a black jacket, the fact that Edmonds had already attempted suicide in 2003 and the hammer used as evidence that was not present in the photographs of the scene of the incident the day it happened.
Lori Tyler, Edmonds’ live-in girlfriend at the time of the incident, testified Edmonds tried to get her to kill herself and write a suicide note just this last summer.
Clearlake Police Officer Michael Ray gave two conflicting accounts on the witness stand on the number of vials of blood taken from Renato Hughes the day he was taken into custody. First Ray said four vials were taken, then later he testified there were more than four.
Shannon Edmonds even threatened Dale Lafferty’s grandfather, Frank Kester, and told him not to testify, according to Kester’s testimony.
I admit to being possibly biased due to the fact that I visited Renato Hughes once a week when he was housed in the Lake County Jail. We did not discuss the case. We discussed the Lake County Jail.
Even Dale Lafferty’s grandfather is not convinced how Dale was injured, or who struck him on the head with the metal bat.
Can this be resolved in a just, fair manner?
Joan Moss lives in Kelseyville.
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