If You Served, Please Register
Dear Ann Landers: One year from today, we will dedicate the Women in Military Service Memorial at the ceremonial entrance to Arlington National Cemetery. The memorial, with its education center, exhibits, theater and computer register, will be the first national memorial honoring all military women, past, present and future.
With your help, Ann, we have now registered more than 130,000 women. But there are well over a million from whom we have not yet heard and we need to reach them. We are asking once again that you let woman veterans know about their memorial.
The register of service women will be the heart of the memorial’s education center. It will contain each woman’s personal recollections and photos. At last, their stories will become a permanent part of our nation’s history.
The service women, their relatives or friends can call us at 1-800-4-SALUTE or write to: The Women’s Memorial, Dept. 560, Washington, D.C. 20042-0560. In turn, we will send them materials so they can register.
We are so grateful for your assistance, and look forward to the dedication on Oct. 18, 1997. Sincerely - Wilma L. Vaught, brigadier general, Air Force retired, president, Women in Military Service Memorial
Dear Brig. Gen. Vaught: Thank you for your letter. Readers, if you or any women you know have served in our country’s military, please take this opportunity to contact the Women’s Memorial to request a registration form. It’s an honor long overdue.
Dear Ann Landers: A while back, you had a rather spirited discussion in your column about the prison situation in this country. A great many readers who wrote are under the impression that prisoners have it too easy. I appreciate the opportunity to add my two cents - anonymously, of course.
No privileges can replace the loss of freedom. Ask any inmate. Who would be so foolish as to think prisoners or ex-convicts have an easy time under any circumstances? They have many things to fear and many difficult losses to endure. Their children grow up, their parents grow old, spouses may divorce and remarry, their former social skills won’t fit on the outside, and nobody wants a convict in the neighborhood.
Lawmakers sometimes act irresponsibly for political reasons, catering to the thoughtless cry for more prisons and longer sentences, rather than finding intelligent ways to deal with problem people. They remind me of the insane man who continues to mop up the water vigorously instead of turning off the faucet.
There are treatment centers and juvenile schools around the country that have been successful in preventing problem people from becoming lifetime members of the prison system. More funds delegated to parole and probation supervisory plans would make it possible for thousands of prisoners who have served their time to become productive citizens rather than part of the prison industry at taxpayers’ expense.
Prisons are necessary for our protection, but they should not be warehouses for men and women who could get on with their lives if given the opportunity. Surely we have lawmakers who are competent to find better ways. - Concerned Citizen in Wichita
Dear Wichita: You have written a letter that contains some sound and sensible suggestions. I hope the authorities who are able to implement these changes will see your comments and follow through.