In Fall River, MA, the Mayor and City Council recently renamed a memorial site in honor of a restaurant owner and displaced the memorial dedicated to a WW II soldier. This is a travesty and it must be reversed.
The whole story is below the fold.
Herald News
David Miller was a WW II hero who Fall River honored with a memorial on a small piece of city land in 1946. Cpl. Miller survived the infamous 1942 Bataan Death March in the Phillipines where the Japanese committed atrocities upon the US soldiers they captured including rapes, beheadings and disembowelments. Miller amazingly survived the barbarity of the death march, only to perish as a prisoner of war in July 1943.
The small plot of green space was named Cpl. David Miller Green "in honor of all the boys of the southern side of the city who served in the Armed Forces during World War II." It was rededicated by the city in 1975 and again 1991 when the city installed a small monument with a bronze plaque honoring Miller.
And just this year, some six decades after the City Council and mayor voted to honor a true American hero with his own green, the square, along with a significantly larger monument, was rededicated yet again.
For a local restauranteur.
Now known as Paul K. McGovern Square, the green honors the late owner of McGovern’s Restaurant on Shove Street.
While McGovern’s legacy may well be deserving of honor, there is simply no comparison between Miller’s sacrifice and McGovern’s contribution.
Yet, both mayoral spokeswoman Ines Leite and City Councilor Pat Casey insist the renaming of the square "is not intended to be a slight to veterans at all."
But, it’s impossible to see it any other way.
Please help us expose this egregious action.
Please contact your local VFW, American Legion, and your Congressional representatives and ask all to protest the disrespect shown to Cpl. Miller and all of our veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice
Media folks: please help expose this travesty to the rest of the country.
And please send an email to the Mayor and City Councilor Pat Casey telling them what you really think. rcorreia@fallriverma.org and pcasey@fallriverma.org