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" To propose that I am equating Japanese fascists with former American slaves suggests that you don't understand what you read. Memorials mean different things to different people. Their meaning is not monolithic or fixed. I used the example of Civil War memorials to make a simple point. The ostensibly unobjectionable agreement, shared by northeners and those from the south, to focus their commemoration of the war on the valor of the fallen dead, served a very different agenda: the perpetuation of white supremacy. Right wingers who insist that some forms of memorial are acceptable but others are not, are hypocrites. Their participation in memorializing a war, without exception, is an assertion that it is their version of the conflict that is the correct one. Do you get it now? "

" So what's your point? Are you saying that because others have used memorials for political purposes, it's OK for this group? Are you claiming that the Japanese aggressors in WWII are the moral equivelants of the African American slaves of 150 years ago? I don't get it. "

" This is a fine letter. I think the problem the last few weeks is that some un-informed others took it as a chance to attack the actions of those that fought WWII for America for no other reason than self-promotion or self-indulgence. Memorials are always appropriate when they remind us the terrible consequences of war and it is unto itself the atrocity to be avoided. "

" To the comically mis-named "Wat Tyler": Memorials serve all kinds of purposes and are appropriated by various groups in ways that are often nakedly political. Civil War memorials and rituals of remembrance, for example, were critical in creating an essential point of contact between the people of the victorious North and those of the defeated South. Both sides could agree to stop bickering about the causes of the war and instead focus on honoring the other's fallen dead for their bravery and valor. Of course it was African Americans who paid the real price for this sectional reconciliation. "Wat" pretends that the participation of American conservatives in memorial services has nothing to do with attempts to burnish patriotic credentials or to assert exclusive rights to define American values. That is self deception, pure and simple. "

" As this letter serves to promote opinions, it is just too bad that it does not promote any further discovery. Fortunately as of late, I have discovered more of the other side of the military industrial complex as so warned by Dwight D Eisenhower. War mongers want war. Peace lovers want peace. There has got to be a medium somewhere. And kiling to save lives really doesn't make any sense. Getting to the point however, one should put more effort (by studying multiple sources) in finding the real cause that we finally decide abandon the love of peace and to go to war. False flags do exist as a pretext to war. WWII and 9/11 are no exception. Pay attention sheeple as mainstream media has dumbed you down. See www.infowars.com "

" well written and exactly what i've been posting about in response to the ridiculous liberal postings for the last 2 weeks (i never posted before...quiet majority). "

" Holding a memorial service to honor the memory of innocent victims is praiseworthy. Holding a memorial service, using innocent victims of past events to further political goals and to take advantage of an opportunity to denounce one’s country is a bit less than praiseworthy. Ms. Scarbeary’s denunciation of “American atrocities” is more a reflection of her political tendencies and ethnocentristic views than a historical fact. Ms. Scarbeary, a child of the 60’s, a peace activist and a democrat has cleverly tied her personal goal of ending what she describes as an unjust war to one of the most controversial acts of war in the last century. The segue from sympathy for the Japanese victims of our atomic bombs and sympathy for the innocent victims in Iraq is inappropriate and deceitful, but a typical example of the tactics of the anti-war left. It doesn’t make me mad, per se, just terribly disappointed in them. "

" GREAT LETTER. "