A message board has been added to the PFC LaVena Johnson website. The new forum, running on phpBB which will be familiar to many, provides space for discussion and community beyond the scope of website commenting. The style of the forum is provided by Brian Gardner, author of the Revolution theme for WordPress which the LaVena site employs.

Visitors are invited to stop by the forum, look over the posting guidelines, and begin the discussion!

This weekend, I discovered a couple of malfunctions in the website that resulted at least indirectly from this site’s move from Blogger to WordPress. The first involved incomplete posts – about ten percent of the entries on the site were oddly truncated, cut off after the first few lines. I can only think that this was an unintended result of the recent upgrade to the latest version of WordPress and its upgrade of the site’s database. Fortunately, I had archived versions of the shortened posts and was able to restore them.

The second miscue involved non-working links to files created by me – mini-pages that list contact information for the members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees (as on this page). Those mini-pages appeared as pop-ups when the links were clicked, but that was when the site was hosted on Blogger, where the JavaScript resided that made it possible. I have a solution in hand for this issue, however, and will apply it as soon as time allows. Note: the links have all been corrected.

Regular readers of the official LaVena Johnson site will note marked changes in every on-screen aspect of the website, beginning with the name: Pfc. LaVena Johnson. Events have outstripped the original title, which was tied to the petition addressed to the two Armed Services Committees. With that petition closed and two others underway, the website’s title now properly reflects its true subject – a person – rather than a tactic.

The LaVena site has moved away from the Blogger platform and is now powered by the WordPress publishing system. The design is version 3.0 of the Revolution theme created by Brian Gardner.

The front page of the website displays featured items of note, links to the six most recent news posts, and links to a site map and all categories and major departments. Clicking on “News” in the dark menu bar displays news posts in a standard blog format, complete with commenting functionality. All comments and commenter information from the previous edition of the site has been imported into the new edition. Readers can bookmark the News page rather than the main page of the site if it suits them. The new feed address for the site – http://feeds.feedburner.com/lavena – sends all recent news posts to subscribers.

The “Site Map” page, also accessed via the dark menu bar, provides a helpful portal to all pages, categories, monthly archives, and individual news posts. The “Contact” page displays a contact form which delivers messages to the webmaster (and not directly to the Johnson family). The form contains a verification measure to guard against automated spamming.

Minor archival note: The first edition of the LaVena Johnson website was launched on March 6, 2007; the Blogger template style used was the iconic Minima (Ochre) by Douglas Bowman. The second edition, published on May 27, 2007, employed the Downright Blogger Theme v. 3.0 by Thur Broeders.

A brief programming note: Feed subscribers to the LaVena Johnson website should edit their feed reader settings to use the site’s new Feedburner feed address (http://feeds.feedburner.com/lavena). This address will provide subscribers with access to all blog posts at the LaVena Johnson website, regardless of changes in the website’s platform or even its address.

The website’s use of RSS/RSD/Atom feeds will continue for an indeterminate period, but is subject to coming changes at the site. To avoid possible interruptions in service, subscribers are strongly advised to switch to the Feedburner address. Thanks.

It was clear from the outset of this petition project that this was going to be a long haul endeavor. There are so many stories and events that compete for our interest, and media at large is so predictably sluggish and unresponsive, that it can take a long while for any narrative to gain traction. Also, public attention tends to come in spurts, with long empty stretches in which it seems that no one is paying much heed. All the more reason, then, to be heartened when the attention level is high and responses come fast and furious. That’s where we stand today with news of LaVena’s story, and I’m grateful for everyone brought here via weblogs, online magazines, message boards, email, and old-fashioned word of mouth.

It’s your collective voice that will bring the Johnson family the official help they need.

Thank you.

Today, July 27th, marks what should have been a joyous celebration, perhaps including a party filled with family and friends. Today would have been LaVena Lynn Johnson

The petition asking that the Senate and House Armed Services Committees compel the Army to investigate anew the death of Pfc. LaVena Johnson stands at just over 3500 names at the moment. It has taken some three months to reach this point.

The petition to change the logo for the London 2012 Olympics passed 10,000 signatures in less than a day.

The layout of this website has been changed for enhanced readability and flexibility. Credit for the new design is posted at the bottom of the page.

Further modifications and additions are in the making and will be announced in due course.

What do you say to the war dead on Memorial Day?

You tell them, perhaps, that you are sorry you never got the chance to know them. Who they were, what they loved and feared, what they hoped for. That opportunity is gone, replaced by mute stone and silent earth.

You tell them that you honor the choice they made in serving, even though that sacrifice goes unhonored by an army unwilling to answer families who want only to know how their loved ones died so far from home.

You vow to keep the unfulfilled promise of the dead in your heart. What they would have valued. What they might have accomplished. Who they would have been, if only.

On Memorial Day, you tell the war dead – you swear to them – that you will not forget.

The petition page has been inaccessible during the late hours tonight (it was last accessed at 9:40 pm Central). I will post here when it comes back up (or afterwards if it returns while I’m asleep).

The petiton page is once more accessible (2:45 am Central) with no apparent problems.