Memorial Day

You may not recognize Debbie Kowalski Wilson's name, but if you've opened a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue in the past six years, chances are you've seen her work. Wilson, who is from Edgewood and now lives in Hawaii, has had her Maui Girl swimsuits featured in the popular edition of the magazine 48 times - and more than 200 times in the online version. This year, Wilson's swimsuits were featured 14 times, including a centerfold with cover model Kate Upton in Antarctica. And with Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer here on the mainland, quickly approaching, Wilson is preparing for a busy season.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's close friend Lisa Harris Jones and her husband, Sean Malone, made almost $150,000 last year lobbying the city on behalf of business clients, according to reports filed with Baltimore's ethics board.  The forms show Lisa Harris Jones earned $77,000 while Malone, her husband and business partner, made $71,750 lobbying at City Hall in 2012, the forms show. While the money is significantly less than the couple makes lobbying at the state level, the city forms show the firm, Harris Jones & Malone LLC, is busy throughout the year advocating for clients' interests in Baltimore.

President Barack Obama paid tribute on Memorial Day to the men and women who have died defending America, singling out Vietnam veterans as an under-appreciated and sometimes maligned group of war heroes, vowing that "it will not happen again. " This is truly disgracefully pandering for votes among families of fallen American troops. This is no doubt a new low for Mr. Obama. Marking Memorial Day at both the Vietnam War Memorial and earlier at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from the capital, President Obama noted that for the first time in nine years, "Americans are not fighting and dying in Iraq," and the nation was winding down its role in the conflict in Afghanistan.

Throughout my 25-plus years living in the Laurel area, I have always wondered why the community's Memorial Day service is not held on Memorial Day. It is particularly disheartening for those of us who are military veterans but are never able to participate because we attend church on Sunday morning. Steve Hubbard Laurel Mike Sellner, Laurel Volunteer Fire Department, replies: Since 1975, the Memorial Day Service at Ivy Hill has always been held on the Sunday prior to Memorial Day Monday.

The Memorial Day parade in Annapolis will begin at 10 a.m. Monday. The parade route begins at Amos Garrett Boulevard and will follow around Church Circle and down Main Street. A memorial ceremony will follow the parade at Susan Campbell Park, co-hosted by the City of Annapolis and the Fleet Reserve Branch No. 24. To accommodate the Memorial Day parade, Amos Garrett Boulevard and Constitution Avenue will be closed at 8 a.m. so that units participating in the parade may assemble.

I liven in a relatively well off neighborhood. The majority of the people in the neighborhood stand for American family values and are not bashful about denouncing people who don't meet their standards. I am fairly liberal, retired military. Most of that service came about not because of any burning desire to fight the enemy but because I felt it was my duty. I was proud of the work I did. On Memorial Day I thought that it was right that I display my flag in respect for those who died serving their country.

Reading this weekend's Sunpapers, which featured the military loved ones we lost this year and those we have lost in this long war, for which no end is yet in sight, was so sad. Even more the thought that family and friends of those lost or severely injured may feel they are being forgotten in these difficult times in our country saddened me even more. Please do what you can in future articles to assure them that is not so. I joined hundreds of Marylanders Monday at the memorial service at Dulaney Memorial Gardens to honor and remember them and greet the many veterans of other wars who were also there.

Ask children what Memorial Day means to them and they'll frequently say: "That's the day that the pools open. " Yet no other observance in America is more somber: It is the day we remember our war dead, pay homage to their sacrifice and courage, and recall the selflessness that embodies military service. Memorial Day also honors the families of the fallen: the mother who hears her child's 21-gun salute; the husband or wife who receives a folded flag; the young son or daughter who knows mom or dad only from a photograph.

Although Memorial Day has become synonymous with barbeques and cookouts, the municipalities of Aberdeen, Havre de Grace, Perryville and Port Deposit are determined to promote the original meaning, with the help of their respective local veterans organizations. Each town is hosting a Memorial Day ceremony on Monday, May 30, to honor members of the military who fought and died in various wars throughout American history. Aberdeen The ceremony for Aberdeen will start at 11 a.m. at Veterans Park, hosted by the local American Legion Post 128, VFW Post 10028 and a local branch of the Catholic War Veterans.

The Memorial Day weekend is a great time to pick up a book about the men and women who have helped preserve America's freedoms, and have fought for our country around the world. There are lots of great books on the topic, and some more personal readings such as diaries. For me, the one that resonates is a yellowed map and journal called "The Thunderbolt across Europe," which describes the route my dad's division, the 83rd Infantry, took in World War II. It led from the beaches of Normandy, across France, into Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge, and into Germany.

New Covenant Christian School kindergartner Logan Cavey, 6, recites a portion of the Gettysburg Address to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett on Memorial Day at the monument on the Gettysburg Battlefield, commemorating the delivery in November 1863 of President Abraham Lincoln's famous battlefield address. Corbett and Logan crossed paths as the governor was waiting to participate in the official 3 p.m. battlefield memorial service. Logan was visiting the Gettysburg Battlefield with his parents, Scott and Becky Cavey, of Bel Air. A ministry of New Covenant Presbyterian Church in Abingdon, New Covenant Christian School is a preschool through 12th grade classical school with campuses in Bel Air and Abingdon.

Cub Scout Pack 809 from Jarrettsville celebrated Memorial Day by placing more than 200 miniature American flags on the veterans' gravesites at Highview Memorial Gardens in Fallston.

First a bicyclist was hit by a stray bullet last Sunday afternoon on Kirk Avenue. Then a man was shot in his car several blocks away on East 32nd Street near Lake Montebello early Monday. A half-mile from there, a man police were trying to question barricaded himself in a house Tuesday. With a flare-up of violence in his Northeast Baltimore neighborhood and other parts of the city, Mark Washington jumped into action. "How can we help?" Washington emailed Richard Worley Jr., the police major in his district.

A friend of mine sent me a note recently and I wanted to share it with you even though Memorial Day has past. Let us give thanks to those who have given so much so that we can live this life as we do in freedom. We will never forget the sacrifices they made. Blessings to their families and loved ones. God speed and safety to those still serving in our armed forces. Watch over them and their family and loved ones. Bring them safely home and while away may God hold them in the palm of his hand.

The Memorial Day parade in Annapolis will begin at 10 a.m. Monday. The parade route begins at Amos Garrett Boulevard and will follow around Church Circle and down Main Street. A memorial ceremony will follow the parade at Susan Campbell Park, co-hosted by the City of Annapolis and the Fleet Reserve Branch No. 24. To accommodate the Memorial Day parade, Amos Garrett Boulevard and Constitution Avenue will be closed at 8 a.m. so that units participating in the parade may assemble.

On this Memorial Day, I thought it would be worth recalling the Civil War origins of this annual observance. Here is one of the most beloved songs from those terrible years of when the country was torn apart by an internal conflict. "The Vacant Chair" may seem overly sentimental in our cyncial era, but the bitterwseet words and simple tune can still haunt, as they did when the Civil War was taking its toll on so many soldiers and their families. We shall meet, but we shall miss him There will be one vacant chair We shall linger to caress him While we breathe our evening prayer.

Cub Scout Pack 809 from Jarrettsville celebrated Memorial Day by placing more than 200 miniature American flags on the veterans' gravesites at Highview Memorial Gardens in Fallston.

A pleasant Memorial Day weekend, dear readers! Memorial Day observances will be conducted May 27 at 9 a.m. at Angel Hill Cemetery and then proceed to Tydings Memorial Park by 11 a.m. Contact the American Legion Post 47, 410-939-0234. Memorial Day honors deceased veterans of all wars, though it was begun as a tribute to Civil War dead. Falling as it does with our country involved in a major military conflict in Afghanistan, let this be a patriotic inspiration to us all. As we honor our fallen heroes, some very recent, may we remember and cherish the freedoms and liberties for which they fought to defend.

Wounded veterans are getting free gym memberships and home exercise equipment, thanks to a nonprofit group founded by a Homeland woman, whose brother was killed in Afghanistan in 2009. Lynn Coffland's shoestring organization, the Catch A Lift Fund, has helped about 125 veterans so far, but lacks the funding to accommodate hundreds more applications that it has on file, she said. “It's been a struggle,” said Coffland, an interior decorator, who is organizing a fundraiser Sept.

The Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville kicked off its commemoration of Memorial Day on Saturday with an exhibition of more than 500 full-size American flags. The display, known as the Charlestown Field of Honor Veterans Tribute, raises money for the Wounded Warrior Project and the Charlestown Benevolent Care Fund. Each flag was “sponsored” by businesses and residents for $35 each. On Saturday, the community on Maiden Choice Lane hosted an event featuring the Maryland National Guard Honor Guard presenting colors; the National Anthem sung by Julia Tucker; the Charlestown VFW Post; the Civil Air Patrol and the Lansdowne Junior ROTC.  Hubbard Funeral Home presented the event.