It’s Billy’s Blog

Via Reuters:

A Chinese policewoman who breastfed babies orphaned during last month’s earthquake has been given a better job, prompting online protests that promotions should be awarded on merit, not merely for good deeds.

Jiang Xiaojuan, 30, left her own baby with her parents and took part in the disaster relief work, breastfeeding nine babies, earning her the nickname of “the police mum” in the press.

She has since been awarded titles of “hero and model police officer” and “excellent member of the Communist Party,” was appointed to the Communist Party of China Committee of the Jiangyou Public Security Bureau and became the bureau’s vice commissar, Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

So, I’m sitting here, reading this story, and I’m trying to not tear up:

This year dozens of members of Les Fleurs de la Memoire have shown up at Colleville-sur-Mer for the annual Memorial Day ceremony, which begins with a flyover by U.S. fighter jets in the missing-man formation.

A French priest recites the Lord’s Prayer, then a rabbi chants the Kadish. And a French military band plays the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

But behind the grand ceremony, a simple tribute unfolds at the back of the cemetery. Jean Michel Miette, 50, kneels in front of the grave of Jennie’s uncle, Pvt. 1st Class Walter C. Malcolm. Miette is the one who adopted Malcolm’s grave and he has come from Paris this morning to honor him.

Miette, like Jennie Malcolm, discovered Les Fleurs de la Memoire last summer. He says the organization has enabled him to honor the American soldiers who sacrificed their lives for his country and for liberty.

I’ve spoken to vets who’ve returned to France to honor their fallen comrades. They have nothing but good things to say about the people who live in the countryside, near the sites of the actual invasion. It is in the big cities, especially Paris, where America is sneered at, where it is considered uncouth and somewhat unsophisticated to express an appreciation for the sacrifices of those who died for their freedoms they enjoy.

On second thought, maybe the French aren’t all that different from us at all.