MEMORIAL DAY 2018

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE

I watched the flag pass by one day,

It fluttered in the breeze;

A young Marine saluted it,

And then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform,

So young, so tall, so proud;

With hair cut square and eyes alert,

He’d stand out in any crowd.

I thought… how many men like him

Had fallen through the years?

How many died on foreign soil?

How many mothers’ tears?

How many pilots’ planes shot down

How many died at sea

How many foxholes were soldiers’ graves

No, Freedom is not Free.

I heard the sound of Taps one night,

When everything was still;

I listened to the bugler play,

And felt a sudden chill;

I wondered just how many times

That Taps had meant “Amen”

When a flag had draped a coffin

Of a brother or a friend;

I thought of all the children,

Of the mothers and the wives,

Of fathers, sons and husbands

With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard

At the bottom of the sea,

Of unmarked graves in Arlington.

No. Freedom is not Free!

©Copyright 1981 by Kelly Strong

As our nation observes Memorial Day, the members of the House Republican Caucus join with Americans everywhere to pay tribute to our fallen soldiers. Their service and sacrifices will never be forgotten.

-->

WCVB-TV's Karen Anderson Highlights Representative Jones' Rape Kit Testing Reforms

WCVB-TV aired a segment last night on House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones, Jr.’s efforts to empower victims of rape and sexual assault by changing the way Massachusetts tests and tracks sexual assault evidence kits.

Working closely with the Joyful Heart Foundation, Representative Jones was able to secure a series of reforms in the omnibus criminal justice reform bill Governor Baker signed into law last month.  Sexual assault victims will soon be able to follow the status of their kits through a statewide database being set up within the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS).  This database will allow victims to track their kits from the time they are collected and transferred to law enforcement, through the testing and storage process. 

The bill also requires police departments to clear their existing backlog of untested kits associated with a reported crime.  Similar testing conducted in other states has helped police to identify hundreds of serial rapists connected with previously unsolved crimes.

You can watch Representative Jones’ interview with WCVB’s Karen Anderson by playing the video posted here.

Representative Jones’ Statement on Release of Senate Ethics Committee Report

House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones, Jr. (R-North Reading) released the following statement today in response to the SenateEthics Committee’s report on its investigation into former Senate President Stanley Rosenberg:

“The Senate Ethics Committee’s report underscores the fact that Senator Rosenberg was not only aware of some of his husband’s inappropriate behavior, but also provided him with access to his official State House e-mail account and other confidential information.  Senator Rosenberg’s lapse in judgement and failure to put a stop to this constitutes a clear violation of the public’s trust that has unfairly compromised the integrity of the Massachusetts Senate. Given the information uncovered by the committee’s investigation, Senator Rosenberg should resign immediately from the Senate.  If he does not, it is incumbent that the Senate takes much stronger disciplinary action than what has been recommended in the report.”