thedrifter
03-03-07, 06:58 PM
Lowlifers come and go, but honor lives on
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Saturday, March 3, 2007.
There's an old two-word saying around the newsroom, uttered from time to time when we hear of a particularly egregious or appalling crime.
The phrase is "No trial."
It's a facetious (but sometimes it seems only semi-facetious) comment that means we'd prefer the criminal proceedings go directly to the penalty phase and the harshest of sentences be passed down upon the lowlife defendant.
"No trial."
Such was the case the other day when we heard that vandals had torn down flags flying in an east Lancaster neighborhood in honor of Cpl. Christopher Leon, U.S. Marine Corps, who was killed in action in Ramadi, Iraq, last year.
He was 20.
The flags - service flags for the Marines, Army, Navy and Air Force, as well as a couple of U.S. flags - were torn down from their lanyards last weekend.
A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy driving by noticed the vandalism.
The flags had flown every day since June 20, the day Chris Leon was killed by a sniper.
No one has been arrested for the crime.
Whether the culprits were misguided and ignorant juveniles who vandalized the flags as thoughtlessly as they would vandalize a public wall with ugly spray paint, or whether the act was more deliberate, intended as some kind of protest against the Iraq war, really doesn't matter.
Whoever the vandals are, they are small and insignificant individuals.
They can perform their spiteful, hateful acts against the memory of a fallen Marine - but they can never diminish the honor he brought to his country and to those people who knew him.
The vandals can tear down flags, but they cannot tear down the memory of Chris Leon.
Friends and family put another set of flags up right away.
http://www.avpress.com/n/03/0303_p15.jpg
LONG MAY THEY WAVE - Old Glory and flags for all branches of the armed services, displayed in honor of fallen Marine Cpl. Christopher Leon, again fly proudly in a Lancaster neighborhood after vandals destroyed the previous display.
RON SIDDLE/Valley Press
Ellie
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Saturday, March 3, 2007.
There's an old two-word saying around the newsroom, uttered from time to time when we hear of a particularly egregious or appalling crime.
The phrase is "No trial."
It's a facetious (but sometimes it seems only semi-facetious) comment that means we'd prefer the criminal proceedings go directly to the penalty phase and the harshest of sentences be passed down upon the lowlife defendant.
"No trial."
Such was the case the other day when we heard that vandals had torn down flags flying in an east Lancaster neighborhood in honor of Cpl. Christopher Leon, U.S. Marine Corps, who was killed in action in Ramadi, Iraq, last year.
He was 20.
The flags - service flags for the Marines, Army, Navy and Air Force, as well as a couple of U.S. flags - were torn down from their lanyards last weekend.
A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy driving by noticed the vandalism.
The flags had flown every day since June 20, the day Chris Leon was killed by a sniper.
No one has been arrested for the crime.
Whether the culprits were misguided and ignorant juveniles who vandalized the flags as thoughtlessly as they would vandalize a public wall with ugly spray paint, or whether the act was more deliberate, intended as some kind of protest against the Iraq war, really doesn't matter.
Whoever the vandals are, they are small and insignificant individuals.
They can perform their spiteful, hateful acts against the memory of a fallen Marine - but they can never diminish the honor he brought to his country and to those people who knew him.
The vandals can tear down flags, but they cannot tear down the memory of Chris Leon.
Friends and family put another set of flags up right away.
http://www.avpress.com/n/03/0303_p15.jpg
LONG MAY THEY WAVE - Old Glory and flags for all branches of the armed services, displayed in honor of fallen Marine Cpl. Christopher Leon, again fly proudly in a Lancaster neighborhood after vandals destroyed the previous display.
RON SIDDLE/Valley Press
Ellie