Late Night Thoughts to Share

[NanceGreggs]

My son left Toronto several years ago to move to Florida. He’s in the music business (producer/composer), and he was offered an opportunity there that he couldn’t refuse.

Last night we were emailing back and forth; he’s upset because he’s having problems with his Mercedes. He’d dreamt about owning a new Mercedes since he was a teenager, and after years of hard work – often done without pay as he built up a reputation in his field – he treated himself to his dream car when he finally ‘made it’ and started to earn the big bucks.

After commiserating with him over his mechanical woes, I realized how fortunate I am. My biggest worry for my son is that he’s having trouble with his Mercedes.

I thought about all of the mothers who have much bigger worries tonight; worries that their son in Iraq might not be alive next month, next week, tomorrow.

I won’t even venture into the realm of I can only imagine what those mothers go through, day in and day out – because I can’t imagine. My mind won’t even let me go there and, if it did, I still couldn’t really know how they feel. I don’t think anyone can really know, other than those who are living with that nightmare, twenty-four hours a day.

All of our young men should be worried about their Mercedes – or their boat, or their classic 50’s jukebox, or their year spent traveling in Europe – whatever it is that young men dream about having some day, and work to finally achieve.

All of our young men should be worried about whether their favorite team will make the series this year, instead of worrying about surviving in a hostile place on the other side of the world.

They should be thinking about calling that girl they met at the bar last week, instead of thinking about whether their next call home will be their last.

They should be laughing with their buddies about who got punk’d but good by their last practical joke, instead of crying with their brothers-in-arms over who got taken out by an IED and never saw it coming.

They should be home, marrying their childhood sweetheart, taking over the family farm, starting up that construction business they planned for years, finishing med school, watching their first daughter being born, driving their son to Little League practice – doing all of the things that young men do.

And mothers shouldn’t be afraid to answer the phone, because it might be that call. Mothers shouldn’t feel a sense of panic every time there is an unexpected knock on the door.

Young men should only have to worry about their Mercedes – and mothers shouldn’t have to worry at all.

Please, God, let this be over soon. For the sake of the young men and their mothers, for the sake of all of the men and women who are so far from home, for the sake of the people whose lives we continue to destroy, and for the sake of a country that is truly capable of much better things.

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Amen. n/t

[NMDemDist2]

2. indeed n/t

[Kurovski]

3. K&R

"...for the sake of a country that is truly capable of much better things."

[TheMadMonk]

4. Nance. Would you ruddy well do something about getting yourself a wider readership.

We all love you here. But you are preaching to the converted.

Get out there where people will hate you.

Hate you with all their being for being right.

And where a far greater number will read what you have to say and stop and look around. And will hopefully finally say WTF?

[Prophet 451]

10. Seconded

Nance, we love you to death here but your stuff needs to be read by a wider audience. Get hold of this year's Writers & Artists and start mailing out samples.

[WillyT]

5. K & R

Amen...

[OneBlueSky]

6. for the past five or six years, my local paper has been running a column . . .

entitled "Role of Honor" which includes brief bios and, in most cases, photos of recent casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan . . . some days there are as few as three, some days as many as eight . . . I'd guess that the average is about four, and the column runs every single day . . . without exception . . .

I make it a point to read each and every one of these every day, just to keep my level of outrage honed . . . and every day, I'm particularly moved by the mention of the children left behind . . . "Sgt. Smith is survived by his wife, Martha, and his four sons -- Adam, 16; John, 14; Anthony, 10, and Scott, 6" . . . breaks my heart every time . . . and enrages me even more . . . such promising young lives, wasted in pursuit of BushCo grandiosity . . .

even if the average is a mere two a day, and this has been going on for five years (which it has), I figure I've read something like 3,650 death notices to date . . . my hunch is that the average is closer to four, which would translate to 7,300 deaths . . . how this figure squares with BushCo claims of 3,700 total deaths, I don't know . . . but I have my suspicions . . ,

reading these snapshots of young lives wasted is depressing and enraging, but I feel that, as a citizen, I have a responsibility to those who have died to honor them by at least reading their stories . . . and I will continue to do so until this atrocity of a "war" is brought to an end or I leave the planet -- whichever comes first . . .

God bless 'em, every one . . . and the families and friends they left behind . . .

[Blue_In_AK]

7. Kick for the daytime.

[Raster]

8. Unfortunately, it won't be over soon. I had a very similar awareness today.

We had two sons of a friend help us move a small business today. 17 and 15. Intelligent, charming, handsome, well-mannered young men. And I thought how vulnerable, and right in the line of fire. My country no longer makes TVs. We make weapons. We manufacture war. Kids just a bit older than these two boys are raw materials. Our main export is death. Half of the yearly budget of this country is spend on "defense." If some have their way, there will never be peace. There's is too much blood money to be made.

Wake up America!:kick:25

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. My dear Nance....

I weep for mothers and sons......

And for all of us who mourn this horrifying waste of young lives...

In this illegal, immoral war....

K&R

:cry: