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Yesterday my wife said her goodbyes to people here in Ohio as today she was flying out to California for good. I will be following shortly when I get the moving van, get things packed up, etc.
I know I am getting old because I have spent the last few years saying goodbye to so many, and saying hello to so very few who have come into my life. I also know I am getting old (ok 41 may not seem old to some....) because when I took the wife and daughter to the airport the lady asked my 6 yr old to move please so grandpa could put the suitcases on the scale - and the she said, it is grandpa right? Uh NO my wife is not my daughter. Curse her for looking young and my early gray!
As I sit here alone tonight and it got me to thinking about the war, and our young folks out there fighting for bush and his oil buddies.
I came home and walked into the bathroom for a shower - and I smelled my wife's perfume. I just wanted to hold her. I wanted her to be safe on her trip. I wanted to touch her again and look into those loving eyes. And it all hit me later after my wife called.
So many of our fine young people who are used to holding someone, feeling them, making love to them, are now out in a hot desert doing the exact opposite - killing people, and feeling unsafe and scared. Their loved ones are not there with them to hold them. And they have no idea if or when they will see them again.
She met a military guy on one of the planes she was on. He talked to her the whole flight. He talked about life, girlfriends, a future with kids. Going to college and making a life. He was 22 and joined up to get out of where he was, to have a chance in life people in his small Texas town did not have.
He just wanted what so many do - to make love and not war. To make dreams come true, not kill other people.
So many of our young folks are thrust into this war, tore away from family and friends who can hold them and comfort them, away from people they trust - and tossed into a hell hole where everyone is a suspect, death is not a hooded skeleton with a scythe but could come in the form of a car with kids in it, and deep down all they want is the scent of a lover to fill them as they lay safely in their arms.
They want to defend those they love, and the country from which they come - but they are not defending, they are in an offensive zone giving up all they have here to enrich the few who would not dare to walk the streets of Iraq as they do.
I am lucky. I may hold the towel she showered with and smell it and know that I will soon be back in her arms - they know only that tomorrow they may die and leave the love of their life shattered, to be replaced by a folded flag that they will sit and hold on to while wanting the person it represents and not their memory.
I can sleep tonight in our bed and know that soon I will see and hold her again, that I can call her anytime - those spouses of military folks will lay there alone tonight wondering if the next knock on the door is the one they dread. Feeling alone tonight I can better grasp what they are going through, and be thankful to the good Lord I am not where they are.
Who really supports the troops? We do - because we see how ugly and terrible war is not just for others, but for our brave young men and women who signed up to defend our country. We want them home to make love again, not war.
Our news is filled with Anna Nicole Smith and Imus, while the real heartache each day is pushed to the back burner. Our young folks are being shredded mentally and physically for a war that should never have begun.
Tonight I will lay alone in bed and hug the pillows she sleeps on - but I will also know she is in a place where she is happy and has dreams of a better life. Our soldiers' spouses will do the same, knowing that at any moment the one they miss might be blown to bits because our asshole in chief is hell bent on carrying out his war of lies and cares only about himself.
We didn't stop Iraq from attacking us - we stopped the dreams of our own kids so that the few might have even more than they have now.
We can't stop Iraq from going into a civil war - but we can stop our people from being target practice during it.
Bring em home. Let em make love. Let others make war. And if ya really think we should be in Iraq, grab your gun and go. But I don't see anyone who thinks we should be there actually going there. Damned shame.
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