‘IL SILENZIO’ … ‘The Silence,’ a haunting reminder of war

Buona notte, amore … ti vedrò nei miei sogni. Buona notte a te che sei lontana.

Good night, love … I’ll see you in my dreams. Good night to you who are far away.

By Calvin T. Lucy Jr.
Guest Post

“The Silence.”*

About  six miles from Maastricht, in the Netherlands, lie buried 8,301 American soldiers who died during World War II’s “Operation Market Garden” in the  battles to liberate Holland in the fall and winter of 1944. “Operation Market Garden” was an unsuccessful and very costly battle during World War II. It was proposed by British General Bernard Montgomery to secure one bridge at Caen in the Netherlands as a Rhine River crossing near the end of the war. U.S. General George Patton succeeded in crossing the Rhine later using a pontoon bridge constructed under fire by U.S. Army engineers.

Univ of Michigan reverses decision to block ‘American Sniper’ … coach weighs in

Michigan Football will watch “American Sniper”! Proud of Chris Kyle & Proud to be an American & if that offends anybody then so be it!

— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) April 9, 2015

By Lynn R. Mitchell

On Wednesday, the University of Michigan allowed the protest of 300 students to cancel a showing of “American Sniper, ” the movie about decorated U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle who served four tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom and was killed two years ago by a disturbed former soldier he was trying to help (see Univ. of Michigan cancels ‘American Sniper’ screening: ‘Made students feel unsafe’):

A scheduled movie screening of “American Sniper” at the University of Michigan was abruptly cancelled Tuesday after nearly 300 students and others complained the film perpetuates “negative and misleading stereotypes” against Muslims.

“The movie American Sniper not only tolerates but promotes anti-Muslim … rhetoric and sympathizes with a mass killer,” according to an online letter circulated among the campus community via Google Docs that garnered the signatures.

The signers were mostly students, but also some staff, as well as the Muslim Students’ Association and the president of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, a Palestinian solidarity group at UMich.

Three hundred students is a tiny percentage of the 43,710 students who attend the university.

By late Wednesday, the University reversed its decision (see TOTAL RECALL: UMich will show ‘American Sniper,’ calls decision to ax it ‘a mistake’):