Photo courtesy of freeimages.com

By Lori Jaffe

Once a year, on Memorial Day, we gather as a nation to honor those members of our military who fought and died to protect our unalienable Rights - Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. This year was the first Memorial Day after four years of chaos. This year, it is even more important that we honor our veterans' memories by doing our part each day. It can be a simple act, like emailing your representative. Sometimes it will be more difficult, like gathering petition signatures, talking to people who don't share our views or even running for public office. We can honor our fallen by fighting back in ways as numerous as the poppies that grew in the battlefields after World War I.  We live in "interesting times" and it will not be easy. 

Our party was founded to put an end once and for all to slavery. We were opposed at every turn by the Democrats and ended up in the depths of a horrible civil war, costing more American lives than any other conflict, but we prevailed.

When President Lincoln put forth the Emancipation Proclamation it took the troops to put it into effect. Juneteenth was the last date that the last state got the word out about freedom. It wasn’t even realized right here in the Montgomery County area until about that time.

We’ve made such great strides since the Republican party started us down this road, but the battle isn’t over. There are folks that have expanded their hatred toward every skin color, race and religion - and we have to be vigilant.

But on Juneteenth we thank Lincoln, Douglass, Tubman and so many Republican founders for setting us on this road. Happy Juneteenth!

In local media Bethesda Today has been named News Organization of the Year by the MDDC Press Organization - winning 11 awards.

For Pre-election coverage reporter Ginny Bixby earned first place for her article about Republican efforts in Montgomery County during the 2024 election season.

2025 Montgomery County Republican Central Committee Chair Reardon Sullivan, left, and 2024 Chair Dennis Melby, right, organize campaign signs at the party office in Rockville in August 2024. Photo credit: Ginny Bixby

As you know we often reprint their coverage here, they're perhaps the only media that covers local news, and we've found them to be honest reporters. No, they're certainly not pro-Republican, but they seem to report all sides without a bias. Kind of the way the media USED to be all over.

Congratulations to them.

Two Israeli diplomats shot, killed during event at Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC

"The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we—in a less final, less heroic way—be willing to give of ourselves."

-Ronald Reagan-

40th President of the United States

The Republican Party was founded before the American Civil War to counter the Democrats' demands to continue and expand Slavery in America. During the great conflict that followed over 600,000 troops lost their lives - as well as untold civilians. When southern black Americans were finally emancipated by the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln and given the right to vote, they registered and voted Republican - until the Democrats regained power in the South and took their rights away for decades.

The following story recalls how the black residents of Charleston gave a dignified burial to the Union Troops, honored their sacrifice and respected the memories of their fallen emancipators, years before Memorial Day was proclaimed. It was called Decoration Day, and those soldiers' remains were later moved to a national cemetery in Beaufort, S.C.  READ THE ARTICLE HERE>

The Honorable Karen A. Bushell, Clerk of Circuit Court, performed the swearing-in ceremony of Lawrence Halloran at the Montgomery County Board of Elections. (Facebook)

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Montgomery County Board of Elections Considered Polling Places for the 2026 Gubernatorial Elections

Who Got 

75,000 Votes

Against Jamie Raskin?

June 10

Arrive 8 AM; Meeting: 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM

LOCATION: IHOP, 775 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852 (next to Long and Foster)

Due to limited space, RSVP to Lori Jaffe by June 7 at [email protected]