Tear Jerker, or just plain Jerk? Mother of Slain Soldier Denied Gold Star Membership

At first I thought that this was an easy case...let the woman in. Then I got to this part of the story: "Lagman's application was initiated by Ben Spadaro, a veteran from Yonkers, who said he learned about the citizenship rules of the American Gold Star Mothers while working on a national cemetery committee of the Veterans Administration. When he learned of Anthony Lagman's death and saw Lagman was a citizen but his mother was not, he thought, 'He's buried in a military cemetery, with full honors. She should be able to join.'

'We decided to tell the absolute truth on the application,' he said. 'We put down, `I am not an American citizen.' It was a ploy to get them to reject her, and then we said they should change the rules.'"

OK, anyone else have a problem with this? The poor woman lost her son, and now is being used by some shameless activist. If he wanted them to change the rules, the right way to go about it was to go to them and ask them to. Instead, he took the American way: litigation. Grrr.