CIA honors its own in Memorial Wall ceremony

NEWS AND OPINION:

The Central Intelligence Agency has conducted its annual memorial ceremony to remember, honor and celebrate the courageous officers who gave their lives in service to their country.

During the ceremony, the CIA added two new stars to the Memorial Wall, which commemorates exceptional officers whose legacies live on — and whose service must remain known to only a select few.

The white marble site itself is located on the north wall of the Original Headquarters Building, and it bears a collection of simple stars carved into the stone. Each star memorializes a life lost in the line of duty.

“We gather in this sacred place to mourn and remember. We look upon this Memorial Wall, etched with sacrifice, and honor those Agency officers who gave their lives in the service of our country,” Director William J. Burns told those assembled.

The stars, he said, are “a sacred constellation that inspires us to do more.”

Mr. Burns presented the families of the most recently fallen officers with marble replicas of their loved ones’ stars. The Memorial Wall now has expanded to 139 stars.

IN SEARCH OF VETERANS HISTORY

Have you heard of the Veterans History Project? This honorable effort has been organized by the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress to collect and preserve the firsthand remembrances of U.S. military veterans.

The volunteer-based archive now holds over 113,000 collections, consisting of oral history interviews and authentic materials such as photos and letters, many from those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

The project is now looking to highlight veterans of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service and military veterans who were deployed for natural disasters or public health crises, either domestically or abroad

“It is time to increase our collective awareness of these valiant members of our society and to not only give them the overdue thanks they deserve, but ensure their voices are not lost to history,” said Monica Mohindra, director of the Veterans History Project, in a statement.

She is, by the way, the wife of a Navy veteran whose father, uncle and grandfathers also served in the U.S. military.

Curious about this unique project?  Find the information at LOC.gov/vets/.

NOW THERE’S A THOUGHT

“If Democrats don’t understand how inflation affects Americans, they will after Nov. 8,” writes Christopher Jacobs, founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, in an essay for the Federalist.

NOW THERE’S ANOTHER THOUGHT

For everyone who’s keeping track, the average price of gasoline in the U.S. is $4.59. The price per gallon one year ago was $3.03. The highest price in the land can be found in (where else?) California, where it is now $6.06 a gallon. The source for all these numbers is the AAA.

“Americans are feeling the pain at the pump now more than ever. Paired with historic inflation and shortages for basic goods like baby formula, the rising cost of gas is the result of Joe Biden and Democrats’ anti-U.S. energy agenda. Unfortunately, Biden only plans to make this crisis worse for families by not doing anything,” Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.

ON THE RADAR

Let’s take note of the 13th Annual Western Conservative Summit, set for June 3-4 at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Denver.

The event has been organized by the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University and is the largest conservative gathering in the western U.S.

“The purpose of this summit is to motivate those conservative activists who are in the trenches, to convene and network together, and to educate on key issues, both equipping volunteers as well as training a new younger generation of conservatives,” organizers advise in a statement.

“Our theme, ‘Time to Saddle Up and Ride,’ calls conservatives to boldly and courageously confront our nation’s challenges. It’s time to ride for the brand of faith, family, and freedom,” they say.

The speaker’s roster is also of note. Among the 46 speakers who indeed will step up to the podium and have a say, in no particular order: Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert, Stephanie Luck, Jim Banks and Ken Buck; Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, Tulsi Gabbard, Allen West, Frank Gaffney, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Kayleigh McEnany, Matt Walsh, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, Cal Thomas, Stacy Washington, John Fund, Hans von Spakovsky — well, the list goes on.

The event will be livestreamed. Find information at Centennial.ccu.edu/western-conservative-summit/.

VEEP WATCH

“Vice President Kamala Harris is supposedly the White House point [person] on the border surge, but the issue has vanished from her schedule, the Los Angeles Times reports; she hasn’t hosted an immigration event in nine months. This, though April saw a record 234,088 migrants apprehended at the southern border. Team Biden released 110,000 of those migrants into the interior, and you can add the many thousands who never got caught to that total,” points out a New York Post editorial published Tuesday.

“And ‘root causes’ Harris has stopped pretending to do anything about it, after a few Central American photo-ops and blank ‘do not come’ appeals. (Her press secretary lamely insists she’s still on it.) Despite the issue being at the top of the list of crises facing the country, it’s obvious no one in the White House wants to touch the growing disaster,” the editorial continued.

“After all, the real Biden approach here is ‘let ’em in,’ and who wants accountability for the inevitable results?” the Post concluded.

POLL DU JOUR

• 55% of U.S. adults say the Republican Party “fights for” people of faith; 24% say the same of the Democratic Party.

• 31% say the Republican Party is “neutral” toward people of faith; 40% say the same of the Democratic Party.

• 14% say the Republican Party “fights against” people of faith; 36% say the same of the Democratic Party.

SOURCE: A CBS News poll of 2,041 U.S. adults conducted May 18-20.

• Follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin.