City railroaded by veterans

July 28th, 2009

You hear it all the time how this person, or that entity “railroaded” someone. According to Dictionary.com, one of the definitions for the verb “to railroad” is:

Informal. to push (a law or bill) hastily through a legislature so that there is not time enough for objections to be considered.

That is exactly what a group of veterans did Monday night (7/27/2009) at the city council meeting. They railroaded the City. According to the Muskogee Daily Phoenix article, the veterans threatened city councilors if they did not vote for flying the POW/MIA flag at the Muskogee Civic Center, they would campaign against them in the next election.

They even got the City Council to agree to pay for it to the tune of $10,000 – $12,000. That’s pretty good since every department in the city had to cut their budgets to the bone. I’m not sure where the city is going to come up with the money to pay for it if it is strapped for cash now.

I have the greatest respect for our veterans. Anyone who has fought for freedom deserves that respect. I also think we should honor the dead and missing and remember the price they paid. I think we should remember the price the POWs paid.

I think we remember them at the Batfish War Memorial Park. The POW-MIA flag is flying high at this city-owned park. We remember the price paid by all veterans here. This is the place to memorialize the soldiers, living and dead.

I understand that the Batfish is not as visible as the Civic Center is, but it is the appropriate place to remember. Could this be the most important issue facing the City of Muskogee?