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Who is a hero, Colonel Lakin or Shirley Sherod?
The Other Side of Shirley Sherrod
By RON WILKINS
Imagine farm workers doing back breaking labor in the sweltering sun, sprayed with pesticides and paid less than minimum wage. Imagine the United Farm Workers called in to defend these laborers against such exploitation by management. Now imagine that the farm workers are black children & adults and that the managers are Shirley, her husband Rev. Charles Sherrod, and a host of others. But it’s no illusion; this is fact.
The controversy over the racist dismissal of Sherrod from her USDA post has obscured her profoundly oppositional behavior toward black agricultural workers in the 1970s. What most of Sherrod’s supporters are not aware of is the elitist and anti-black-labor role that she and fellow managers of New Communities Inc. played. These individuals under-paid, mistreated and fired black laborers–many of them less than 16 years of age–in the same fields of southwest GA where their ancestors suffered under chattel slavery.
Lieutenant Colonel Terrence ("Terry") Lakin serves as Chief of Primary Care and Flight Surgeon for the Pentagon's DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic. He is the lead Flight Surgeon charged with caring for Army Chief of Staff General Casey's pilots and air crew.
LTC Lakin's numerous awards and decorations include the Army Flight Surgeon Badge, Combat Medical Badge, the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Achievement Medal with one Oak Leaf Clusters, the National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Service Star, the Armed Forces Expedition Medal, the Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the Overseas Service Ribbon sixth award and the NATO service medal. He has served previously in Honduras, Bosnia, El Salvador, Korea, and Afghanistan.
For well over a year, LTC Lakin has asked through his chain of command and his Congressional delegation for proof that President Obama is Constitutionally eligible to serve as his Commander-in-Chief. He has explained to his superiors that he cannot understand how his Oath of Office to protect and defend the Constitution does not allow military officers to pursue this proof of eligibility.
Some hold that since Congress accepted the Electoral results and the Supreme as not as yet objected, and the Chief Justice swore Obama in that that is enough.
Yet the Constitution starts out "We, the People", and the founders clearly intended that all citizens participate, that they have a duty to inform themselves and then to do what is right according to their understanding.
It is a fact that no state Secretary of State validated Obama's birth records before the primaries or the general election. It is a fact that there are many unanswered and troubling inconsistencies in Obama's known personal history, even from his birth. It is a fact that some reasonable and earnest people hold that he is not eligible for office.
Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. ~Mark Twain
We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." ~Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Why We Can't Wait, 1963
We cannot, by total reliance on law, escape the duty to judge right and wrong.... There are good laws and there are occasionally bad laws, and it conforms to the highest traditions of a free society to offer resistance to bad laws, and to disobey them. ~Alexander Bickel (Constitutional law expert who has been said to bis highly regarded by Justices Roberts and Alito.)
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Kojak, I understand your frustration. Back in spring 2008 I called and emailed my state's Secretary of State to see what the vetting process was. They have none. I wouldn't trust the Hawaiian officials yet, as NONE of their statements were made in a venue that subjected them to the penalty of perjury. They were 'political' remarks.
5 Answers
- KojakLv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
Not sure either of them fall into my definition of "HERO"
Ms Sherrod .... like most human "heroes" has feet of clay..... she did some good things and has done some bad things.....
Col Lakin.... is a brave professional soldier..... but he has made a BIG error..... he swore an oath to obey the orders of those appointed over him.... he can request whatever he wants but he must obey his orders.... those orders are not "immoral" and are legal..... his first obligation is to comply....
I am not a big fan of President Obama.... nor was I a fan of Clinton or Johnson....or Reagan.....but I obeyed my orders..... He can file charges against the President....challenge the Presidents authority in court.....but he has NO right to pick and chose which legal orders he will obey..... and until Congress or the Supreme Court says otherwise....the President is the COMMANDER
EDIT.... I have seen Obama's birth certificate....the Governor of Hawaii has sworn that the birth certificate is on file...... two different newspapers in Hawaii have gone into their archives and found birth notices for Obama....I have read them..... FOX news sent their own investigator to Hawaii and now accepts that Obama was born in Hawaii....BUT according to the Constitution and the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service)....it does not matter where Obama was born..... his mother was an American citizen with 5 years residency.... that makes Obama an American citizen
We had a Republican Congress who could not get rid of a President who was accused of RAPE....lied under oath in court.....committed adultery .....sexual harassment..... suborned blackmail and purgery ...... real crimes that cost him his lawyer license....and were worse crimes than Nixon
DO YOU REALLY THINK THIS DEMOCRAT CONGRESS WILL DO ANYTHING TO PRESIDENT OBAMA NOW ???
President Obama is DESTROYING America..... his birth status is no longer relevant.... time to hold him accountable for the disaster his administration is........the threat he poses to America and our values.....
EDIT If there is a slim prayer of stopping this "train wreck" it is NOT huffing and puffing about Obama's birth place.... We need to concentrate on what he is doing NOW
EXAMPLE: Awhile back unemployment went from over 10 % down to 9.7% ..... Obama claimed credit for lowering unemployment...... HE LIED.... unemployment actually went UP TO ALMOST 12%..... how could he fool the nation??..... by adding 500 million jobs to the computations....500 million jobs that were not counted before..... using the OLD method of computation..... unemployment WENT UP....... he fooled America because you were all looking in Hawaii
EXAMPLE President Obama announced that "NO ILLEGAL ALIENS WOULD GET FREE HEALTH CARE"..... Congressman Wilson called him a liar and was forced to apologize..... BUT THE PRESIDENT WAS LYING..... as a Constitutional lawyer President Obama knows that the Supreme Court and the Constitution BOTH make it illegal to discriminate based on citizenship.....you can not stop illegals from getting free health care.....but you missed that while you were looking for his birth certificate.... EXAMPLE While Obama was in Congress he helped pass a Federal law that prevents the President from firing a Federal judge without due process....as soon as Obama was president he FIRED a Federal judge who was investigating one of his ACORN buddies..... Obama broke Federal law.....but you were busy looking in Africa for Obama's birth place
Source(s): A professional soldier with 30 years military service.... a commissioned officer - Whatever4Lv 71 decade ago
I have no opinion on Serrod, but Lakin is nuts. He was perfectly happy to obey orders from January 20, 2009 up until today as long as they didn't involve reporting to deploy. Why do SOME orders strike him as illegal while others (such as drawing his paycheck) don't? They all come from the same chain of command. The military has no business questioning the civilian structure that governs it -- that's where military coups come from. If soldiers and officers question their orders (unless those orders are for illegal acts), then the military falls apart.
Lakin is throwing away his good career for sheer nonsense. Obama's status won't even come up in the court martial. Lakin is going to be vacationing in Kansas for a while.
- prusa1237Lv 71 decade ago
After reading the Wilkins article I am even more disposed to dislike Sherrod than I already was.
Lakin is a man who follows the stirrings of his conscience. People can argue about the merits of his argument, but I admire him for it.
Source(s): http://www.counterpunch.org/wilkins08022010.html http://www.safeguardourconstitution.com/news/terry... - Secular HumanistLv 71 decade ago
Well now, Col. Lakin is a coward who likes to serve in posh hospitals, but when he is called to serve under combat conditions he chickens out. This is conduct unbecoming an officer. Not wanting to do his sworn duty and follow orders makes him unfit to serve as an officer in the US military an he should be kicked out!
Miss Sherod was used by dishonest people who want to paint African Americans as racists. She was vindicated, but I don't think that makes her a hero - but - I strongly suggest she sues for slander.
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- hansblix222Lv 71 decade ago
Sherrod is a hero because she helps poor farmers--she's done it all her life
Lakin is a guy who doesn't like taking orders from people who look different than he does. I don't want Lakin representing my country.
