All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Share Your Knowledge

A phrase that always resonates with my life’s purpose is this one by His Holiness the Dalai Lama: Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve …

Share Your Knowledge

“No Man Left Behind” – Megan Smolenyak

The faces of 21 of the 23 soldiers who have been identified since last Memorial Day. If you take a close look at this illustration, you'll find a McKeeman, McCarthy, and McGuire among those 21 soldiers, so Irish America is well represented.

The faces of 21 of the 23 soldiers who have been identified since last Memorial Day. If you take a close look at this illustration, you’ll find a McKeeman, McCarthy, and McGuire among those 21 soldiers, so Irish America is well represented.

“No Man Left Behind” is so much more than a slogan to me. In a sense, I contemplate Memorial Day year-round due to my work with the Army. For the past 25 years, I’ve been assisting the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) with the identification of our soldiers who gave their lives in WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam but have not yet been accounted for.

My role as a genealogist is to seek each soldier’s family, identify his next of kin, and find relatives who share his mitochondrial, Y-DNA, and/or autosomal DNA with the hope that they’ll be willing to provide reference samples. I cold-call my way back into the lives of the soldier’s siblings, nieces and nephews, and cousins – and yes, even in 2024, I still pick up the phone because email, text, and traditional mail strike me as too impersonal for something of this gravity.

Genealogist Megan Smolenyak receives the flag of a soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

Genealogist Megan Smolenyak receives the flag of a soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

I vividly recall the first memorial service I went to at Arlington National when a soldier I had researched was to be buried. So little was known about this repatriation initiative at the time that I was the only one who attended, so was asked to receive the flag (later sent to the family) for the ceremony. Even now, most relatives I reach out to are learning about this for the first time, but awareness is steadily growing so the resulting memorial services are now far more frequent and draw large crowds.

To date, I’ve had the privilege of delving into the roots of 1,711 heroes, and 72 have been identified and returned to their families. That 23 occurred in the last year speaks to constantly improving recovery and identification techniques and technologies.

It’s strange. With the exception of those lost in Vietnam, all of these men died before I was born, so it’s instinctive to think of them as elderly, but the reality is that they were youngsters. To do this work is to wallow in a world of lost possibilities. So much promise expended to retain our freedom. Devoting our effort to bringing them home is the very least we can do.

Source: “No Man Left Behind” – Megan Smolenyak

♫ Summertime ♫ (Redux) | Filosofa’s Word

Up until the release of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s Jazz album, Porgy and Bess, Summertime was still relatively unknown.

Fitzgerald’s cover quickly propelled the song into the limelight, not only cementing it as a jazz staple, but also as globally recognisable hit. The opera was even turned into a film two years later (featuring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge in the title roles), further propelling the song for greatness.

Summertime
Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong

Source: ♫ Summertime ♫ (Redux) | Filosofa’s Word

Hong Kong – Star Ferry – 100CountryTrek.com

The upper deck was a good choice. Only 2.6 HKD return and easy to pay with our Octopus Card. We rushed ahead of the crowd to catch a seat by the water. Popular spot for Tourists.

A short 15 minute walk  from our Ibis Hotel Sheung Wan to Pier 7 on the waterfront. The walk itself was enjoyable with great views along the way.

 

Source: Hong Kong – Star Ferry – 100CountryTrek.com

Ready To Wake Up, America??? | Filosofa’s Word

Lots of talk about the economy these days, and about women’s rights, the Supreme Court’s corruption, injecting religion into education, and more, but little is said about one topic that can and likely will ultimately make all the rest irrelevant … the environment.  The environment, notably climate change, should be perhaps the single biggest concern for all, but instead it has become a political football that nobody really wants to touch.  Last week, 1,301 human beings died in Saudi Arabia because of the heat.  And before anybody even thinks to say it, no, this is not just a normal temperature variation … this is the result of a century of technology throwing carbon into the atmosphere willy-nilly without a thought for the damage we were (and are still) doing in our search for more ‘stuff’, more conveniences, more, more, more of everything.

Elliot Kirschner does a good job reminding us of the ‘tipping point’ we have reached and what we can do about it … what we MUST do about it …


BOILING POINT

Vote like Earth depends on it

By Elliot Kirschner

25 June 2024

It feels like the ultimate privilege to venture out on a typical chilly, fogbound summer evening in San Francisco and wistfully reach for a sweatshirt, wishing it were a bit warmer. 

Meanwhile, as the news blares and a weekend sojourn 200 miles south affirms, much of the world is boiling. 

Talk about living in a (climatic) bubble…

Source: Ready To Wake Up, America??? | Filosofa’s Word