troung

Slain Soldier's Mom Rejected by Gold Star Mothers
Membership Restricted to U.S. Citizens
By JIM FITZGERALD, AP

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/arti..._ccc=4&cid=842

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (May 27) - Everyone agrees that Ligaya Lagman is a Gold Star mother, part of the long line of mournful women whose sons or daughters gave their lives for their country. Her 27-year-old son, Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Lagman, was killed last year in Afghanistan, but American Gold Star Mothers Inc., has rejected Lagman, a Filipino, for membership because - though a permanent resident and a taxpayer - she is not a U.S. citizen.

"There's nothing we can do because that's what our organization says: You have to be an American citizen," national President Ann Herd said Thursday. "We can't go changing the rules every time the wind blows."

That explanation isn't satisfying the war veterans who sponsored Lagman's application, some other members of the mothers' group or several members of Congress.

"It is disheartening that any mother of a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine who has died in the line of duty would be denied membership in an organization that honors the memory of fallen service men and women," said Rep. Nita Lowey, whose district includes Lagman's home in Yonkers.

Rep. Eliot Engel, who represents an adjoining district, said the group should change its rules immediately.

"Whatever the excuse, American Gold Star Mothers' decision smacks of xenophobia and is in stark contrast to what Mrs. Lagman's son fought and died for," Engel said.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said, "We now have many noncitizens serving honorably in our armed services, and I hope that this can be satisfactorily resolved."

A past president of the mothers' group, Dorothy Oxendine, of Farmingdale, said, "There's no discrimination in a national cemetery. There's no discrimination when they get killed side by side. So how can we discriminate against a mother?"

Another past president, Ann Wolcott, of York, Pa., said, "Times have changed since this organization was started, and there are a lot of men and women serving today whose parents are not citizens. I think they deserve every honor and privilege that we have as Gold Star mothers."

Oxendine and Wolcott said they believe that given the increasing diversity of the armed forces there have been noncitizens in the 1,200-member organization who overlooked or ignored the citizenship question on the application.

Lagman has lived in the United States for more than 20 years. She was not at home Thursday, apparently tending to her husband, who is hospitalized. But her other son, Chris Lagman, said in Thursday's The Journal News that all she wants "is recognition as the mother of this fallen soldier."

Lagman's application was initiated by Ben Spadaro, a veteran from Yonkers, who said he learned about the citizenship rules of the American Gold Star Mothers while working on a national cemetery committee of the Veterans Administration. When he learned of Anthony Lagman's death and saw Lagman was a citizen but his mother was not, he thought, "He's buried in a military cemetery, with full honors. She should be able to join."

"We decided to tell the absolute truth on the application," he said. "We put down, `I am not an American citizen.' It was a ploy to get them to reject her, and then we said they should change the rules."

But the organization's 12-member executive board voted against any change.

"We can't go changing the rules every time we turn around," said Herd, the national president. "When we have problems within our organization with people not abiding by the rules, we just get it straightened out, we don't change the rules."

Oxendine, the former president, said she is sure the general membership would approve a rules change if the board did.

"I can't believe that 12 intelligent women would ever not have it in their hearts to think about another Gold Star mother," Oxendine said. "You pay a high price to join the American Gold Star Mothers. I figure her dues were paid."

Spadaro isn't giving up. He had his brother, a Florida lawyer, write to the Department of Justice, noting the mothers' organization has received federal assistance and demanding an investigation.

And on Monday, during Memorial Day observances at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2285 in Eastchester, Lagman will be presented with a gold necklace bearing a simple gold star.


05/27/05 04:35 EDT

Anon

B.S.

Let the woman in already.

Leader

Second that.

__________________

Bluesman

She laid her son's life on the altar of this country's liberty.

For God's sake, she's given all that needs to be paid for admission.

Do it NOW, and apologize, too.

__________________
"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

troung

Well I agree with you guys.

I had hoped and was sure this would be the responce.

dalem

This civilian sez change the rule NOW. It's the decent thing to do. It's the American thing to do.

-dale

Confed999

Amen...

__________________
No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

Leader

Woman Drops Bid to Become Gold Star Mother

The Associated Press
Monday, May 30, 2005; 9:34 AM

YONKERS, N.Y. -- A Yonkers woman has dropped her bid to become a Gold Star Mother. Ligaya Lagman was denied acceptance by the organization of mothers who have lost sons and daughter in combat because she is not a U.S. citizen.

Bob Foster of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Eastchester tells the Journal News that Lagman is shaken up by all the attention she has gotten and she wants to stay on the sidelines. But she wants to see the rules changed so other mothers are not turned down like she was.

Lagman came to the United States from the Philippines in 1983. She is a permanent resident but not a citizen. Foster says she is busy caring for her husband, who is seriously ill. Lagman's son, Anthony, was killed in a firefight in Afghanistan last year at age 26.

Veterans and politicians, among others, called for American Gold Star Mothers to change its policy to allow noncitizen mothers of fallen soldiers into the organization, after reports that Lagman had been excluded from the group.

The Gold Star's national monument is being built in Putnam County.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...000356_pf.html

Julie

If the rules allow the son to die for a country.....the country's rules should be required to answer to his mother for her loss.

Ray

Rather unfortunate.

I am sure you guys could write your Senators and so something about it.

I believe such things work.

Leader

It's a private institution. I don't believe there is a lot that the Government can do.

Trooth

Its very sad and as far as i am concerned i think the orgnisation's rules need updating. Or perhaps more than that the attitude,

But, is the mother perhaps a pawn? I mean this :-

Does seem to imply that Spadaro wanted the fight?

Now that the mother has withdrawn her application due to the publicity makes me wonder if perhaps there was some manipulation going on?

__________________
The world as it should be at surrealscoop.blogspot.com

Semper Fi

Wow! How low can you get? Her son made the ultimate sacrifice and this is the thanks and comfort she recieves. How shameful.

giggs88

"we can't go around changing the rules every time the wind blows"


Petty rules over a life sacrificed for this country?

wow, that is pretty low.

Officer of Engineers

Not the first time and I don't think it will be the last. There are Canadian mothers who lost their sons who served with the US military in Vietnam. As much as I like to sympathize with the group's sympathy for the mother, the mother has it right. This is about her son, not her. And what more can be said about a mother's love to sacrafice her honour for the memory of her son.

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Chimo