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my little brother went off to war the other day. armed with nothing more than the optimism youth affords us and some menial training to pass off as life saving in a day and age where nothing is certain. i feel like the scene from Gulliver's Travels where the country outside our own cannot believe that any decent human civilization still murders other human beings. or on the island of the horses who passed as humans, while humans lived in cages like animals. in that setting we were the savages, the destroyers, those too stupid to take care of our own affairs without outside help.
and it all falls into a kaleidascope perspective, but instead of colors everything turns gray and cold. its like we're living in the shadows while all the technology that provides light gathers dust in some forgotten corner.
i refuse to express my opinions on a small scale by addressing the issue of the war going on. but on a larger scale i am deeply disturbed.
i pray for his safe return but realize the impossibility of that happening. what is safe anymore anyway? whatever his eyes see and his mind is forced to accept, no matter how he returns he will never be safe again. how can it be explained the gravity of what he faces? in my mind he is a hero. all our soldiers are heroes.
too often we lump the men and women in uniform alongside the anger we feel at this war happening at all. we are against fighting, we are against our family members being killed over a war we don't agree with. we have seen time and time again the body bags coming home, and memorials in honor of. we see grief and fear and tears shed over a situation we cannot control.
and so we get angry. our grief has turned the tide until with a united voice america screams for sanity in a world gone mad. and instead of getting our way, instead of bringing our soldiers home, we instead have greatly cheapened what it is they are fighting for. each individual soldier would be able to tell you without a doubt why they are doing what they do. whether it be patriotism, honor, glory or freedom, they choose to fight for it.
they have conquered their fears and relinquished their baser instincts in favor of a life possibly cut short. fighting for what they believe in so strongly they are willing to die for it.
what i want, more than anything, is for my brother, and all those like him, to feel as though they are supported, respected and understood.
while this war has taken them away from us for a time...let us not forget even for a moment, that they are not what we oppose. instead they are symbols of everything that we in this country hold dear.
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Posted by kmalbro on 2008-03-10 23:23:25 | Rating: | Views: 54
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