Soldier Son Killed, Mother Rejected - Welcome to America

Ligaya Lagman, the Filipino mother of Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Lagman who was killed last year in Afghanistan has been refused membership in the group American Gold Star Mothers Inc. Gold Star Mothers is an organization that honors the mothers of fallen service men and women who are killed in the line of duty. According to a story in The Washington Post she was rejected 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 Yes there's a wind blowing alright, and the disgusting smell it is spreading is the smell of discrimination to me. There is absolutely no reason that the rule could not be changed. I am sure the person that killed her son didn't stop and ask her son what his citizenship was or that of his mother before he blew him away. As 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?" MORE.....