Hernando Today
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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Published: May 17, 2008
Most Historic Of Wars
D-Day in Normandy, France, was re-enacted at Fort Desoto in St. Petersburg on April 18-20, with more than 400 re-enactors from throughout Florida and surrounding states. John Manolis, our Hernando County faithful re-enactor, was on the scene bivouacking early and throughout the weekend. He was in the second wave scouring the beachhead in mock Higgins boats. The first wave had casualties; history has attested and bodies lay all over the mock beachhead.
John has been a World War II re-enactor for the past 10 years that I have known him in this role, having promoted the works of these great, dedicated men in their German and American uniforms, dividing up and re-enacting the best they know because World War II is well documented. John taught automotive at Central High School and is now a final inspector of our Hernando County school buses to assure their safety on the roads for our thousands of students, where safety must come first.
Interestingly, the large crowd gathered to watch the D-Day landing moved along with the battles toward the hedge rows. You may recall that in the Civil War, audiences took their picnic baskets and watched the battles on the side lines. D-Day, Normandy, allowed license to permit the crowds to move with the battles, gunfire, smoke screens and the fields left raft with bodies. Unfortunately, the re-enactment was not well advertised. I know many of our World War II veterans that I still work with for benefits and compensation for their great service would have been part of the audience.
Nevertheless, these wonderful vets in their late 1980s and early '90s have another opportunity to visit vehicles and memorabilia of World War II in a living history at the Fort Dade Battlefield in Bushnell during the first weekend in August, a couple of months away.
This is the battlefield ambushed by Seminole tribes. For those of us who crave another moment or vignette of World War II, this gives us an opportunity to relive the most historic of all wars in our time.
Deron Mikal
Brooksville
Russell Vs. Brown-Waite
I had the opportunity to meet John Russell, a Democrat who will run against incumbent U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite on the Democratic ticket. What I found out about Russell is that he sincerely wants to help the people of the 5th District. You can the feel sincerity radiating from him. When I asked him questions about his stand on the war, the economy, veteran and Medicare benefits and illegal immigration, I was impressed by his answers. As a disabled veteran of the Vietnam War with a Purple Heart, I feel driven to make sure that vets and their families get everything they were promised.
Those vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are our present-day heroes, and we should make sure they and all other veterans are given the respect and benefits they deserve as well as were promised.
Brown-Waite says that she stands up for vets while continually voting against legislation that would help vets and their families. During the last election I wrote a few letters to the editor telling the residents of this district that Brown-Waite never did much for the residents of the 5th District. I recommended they go online and do a search on how Brown-Waite voted on each bill.
During the last election I personally experienced Brown-Waite's attack team, who would scream and cause problems at the debates. Whenever it was John Russell's turn to speak, they would scream belligerent comments or make obnoxious sounds to try and drown out his rebuttal. This was caught on "YouTube" for the public to hear and see.
When Brown-Waite runs for re-election she has the support of big business with deep pockets. John Russell earned 40 percent of the votes this last election solely with donations he received from supporters and from family and friends. Big business never came to knock on his door. We know what we got from Brown-Waite in the past, and we can expect the same in the future.
We don't want more of the status quo. What we need is change. This time I think he will make it possible to finally get the real change we need. I recommend that you make it a point to check out John Russell for yourself.
William Vahoviak
Spring Hill
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