http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=1030104President Obama is under fire for deciding to skip the annual Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
Obama plans to be in Chicago on Memorial Day vacationing with family and spending casual time with friends, bowing out of the traditional visit to Arlington National Cemetery. Instead, the president will deliver a Memorial Day address at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Illinois, about 50 miles south of Chicago. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife will attend the service at Arlington in Obama's place.
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson of Bond Action says citizens should be concerned.
"...In all honesty, I personally don't believe that he's on the side of the American people," says Peterson. "He seems to care about what's important to [the] enemies of America more than he does America itself."
Not since 2002, when President George W. Bush was in France on Memorial Day and participated in ceremonies at Normandy, has a commander-in-chief missed laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Jesse Lee PetersonSome say critics should remember President Ronald Reagan missed three such ceremonies during his two terms in office, and that both Presidents Bush missed several ceremonies as well, but Peterson says Obama cannot be compared to those presidents and should be in Arlington.
"The only thing he can think of right now is resting at a time when we're at war," the conservative activist laments. "It's insane; it shows a lack of respect for the men and women who have died for freedom and who are sacrificing their lives today."
Before the Memorial Day ceremony on Monday, Biden and his wife Jill will host a breakfast for Gold Star families at the White House.
President Bill Clinton actually had the best record in recent years, attending every Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington throughout his eight years in office.