The latest on Ligaya Lagman...

[TreasonousBastard]

the Filipino woman whose son, Anthony, was killed in Iraq, but who isn't allowed in the Gold Star Mothers because she's not a citizen.

The story was given a lot of time on the local NBC affilliate, and the upshot is that GSM gets some Federal funding, so a whole bunch of people are contacting the Feds to file discrimination claims.

There's a new board taking over next month at GSM, and they just might make the change.

[roguevalley]

1. I hope so. This is astonishingly shortsighted.

[maddezmom]

2. Woman Drops Bid to Become Gold Star Mother

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.

~snip~
more: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050530/ap_on_re_us/gold_star_mother_1

[Carla in Ca]

3. Thanks for the update on this

Yesterday I posted the GSM email address hoping to get as many letters of protest to them, especially Ann Herd, the president. Her quote "We can't go changing the rules every time the wind blows" really got me mad...and I told her so.