I just had a conversation with my son.... [View All]

[waiting for hope]

He's a really sweet boy, only about a week and a half left to go of Kindergarten. They had been discussing Memorial Day and what it means and he really wanted to write to a soldier. The only one we knew of was the husband of one of the teachers at his after school daycare. I asked her this morning if it was okay, she almost starting crying, got me almost crying....anyway, he's a CPL in Fallujah, has another 40 days to go, then he's coming home for two weeks and then he's being deployed again. We talked a bit - she said that they are all calling it a Civil War over there and they don't even know what "winning" is. She also said that the military is being stretched too thin. We chatted about what he would like (sending some Mary Jane candy with the letter) and what she was sending as well.

I had to go - was dropping my two year old off and then I had to take my son to school and I just got this overwhelming sense that she really wanted to talk .. I wish I had the time this morning but plan on making a point of getting there tomorrow morning a bit earlier, so if she wants, she can.

This evening my son made out his card, his little six year old handwriting all over the page but basically it said "Thank you for keeping us safe" - those were his words. He drew a picture of himself at the beach with lots of bright colors and interesting but somewhat recognizable sea life. Afterward, as I was getting ready to read to him, he asked when the war was going to be over. Do you have have those moments with a child when you just can't say what you really want to because they just won't understand? I responded with an ambiguous "I don't know" and he pressed, "When all the bad guys are dead?" "Honey, it's really more complicated than that, but hopefully it will be over soon." Thankfully he got distracted and I was able to put him to bed.

This is not a war, it's an occupation, pure and simple. I could not lie to my son by supporting the notion that it's just a matter of good guys killing bad guys and then I got angry, why, dammit, why do I have to explain to my six year old what this stinking shit pile of a "war on terror" means? I want all of this to be over, it's wearing this nation down like a collective wet blanket that is just too heavy, uncomfortable and wrong - really wrong. What kind of world is my son and daughter going to grow up in? Are they going to publish a What To Expect When Your Child Asks About The "War" book? I just don't know what to say...

When Bush said to David Gregory "They are a threat to your children, David. And whoever's in that Oval Office better understand it and take measures necessary to protect the American people."....I just want to call the SOB out - Fuck you Mr. Bush, come over to my house around 8:00 in the evening, read to my son Dr. Seuss' The Sneetches and then tell him about this war - oh yeah, no lying, tell him the truth. Then I get a dose of reality, Mr. Bush has no soul and he would never understand the meaning behind The Sneetches.

Rant over..

:mad: