In honor of Memorial Day, Maddow Blog will likely be pretty quiet today, but will be back to normal tomorrow.
In the meantime, there are a couple of Memorial Day items to share. First, President Obama urged Americans to remember fallen U.S. soldiers and their families in his weekly address.
Second, Time published an interesting piece from Alison Buckholtz late last week, urging the public to “remember the sequester” this Memorial Day (thanks to my colleague Kathleen Osborn for the heads-up). Against the backdrop of the national holiday, Buckholtz highlighted some of the effects military families have felt as a consequence of needless sequestration budget cuts.
* Some military families have to maintain two homes they can’t afford, because a work transfer was delayed after the next house was already bought.
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* Civilian teachers in the 194 Department of Defense-run schools worldwide will be furloughed, which affects the number of school days in the year and the school’s accreditation (with potentially dire consequences for a high-schooler’s admission to college).
* A carrier deployment was called off, and with it the planned for “at-sea” pay subsidies that some families depend on.
* The timing of the adoption of a child must be re-negotiated.
Buckholtz added, “Suddenly, it’s personal…. So on Memorial Day — when we remember those who sacrificed the most — let’s remember the sequester, too. It’s swiftly becoming our shared sacrifice as Americans.”
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
