"Be a good American, hug your Flat Daddy or Mommy and don't question the war."

[Breeze54]

Be good Americans, bring home the troops

http://savannahnow.com/node/278701

Accent | Anne Hart | Local News
Anne Hart | Sunday, May 6, 2007 at 12:30 am | (see enhanced version)

"Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? I mean, it's not relevant.
So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"

Remember when former First Lady Barbara Bush said that on "Good Morning America"?
It was in 2003. March 18, to be exact.

She was defending her son's decision to serve up a sterilized war to the American
public by censoring images of flag-draped coffins of men and women killed in Iraq.
No need to remind people of what we've lost by showing such gloomy coffins.
No need to acknowledge those lives that ended much too soon.

If only every mother could be so lucky and loaded to think of war as irrelevant.

Now, 3,312 American casualties after the former First Lady made that comment, we
continue to live without seeing daily images of body bags and coffins.

No wonder there weren't enough votes this week to override Dubya's veto of an Iraq
war funding bill that would start bringing American troops home later this year.
Our leaders' beautiful minds can still overlook other people's pain and loss.
Advantage surge.

Think about that waste-my-beautiful-mind quote this Mother's Day as children trot
out their Flat Mommies to fill in again for military moms in Iraq.

Flat Mommies - life-size printed posters of deployed U.S. soldiers provided by military
units to families to ease the pain of separation - will receive the burnt toast on a tray.
The lily corsages. The OJ splashed into the glass by tiny sticky hands.

Cardboard mommies will have to do. Because flesh-and-blood mommies will spend yet another
Mother's Day at war. They will be shouldering M-16s on duty at checkpoints or patrolling
bombed out highways instead of being home to receive this year's clay handprints.

Next month, when Father's Day rolls around, similar Flat Daddies will be on hand to prop
in front of the backyard grill and model the new "World's Best Dad" apron.

When the children ask why their real daddy isn't there, do your best to respond as a member
of the Bush family might. First, point out that such a question is not only dreary and
inappropriate, but also highly un-American.

Then explain that the leaders who gave the American public reports of WMDs when none existed,
now say that the troops can't leave. That withdrawing now would be a disaster.

If the child persists and asks "Why should I believe those leaders now when they lied
in the past?" do not allow this line of questioning.

Otherwise, in a few years, you will have a free-thinking adult on your hands who believes
world leaders should go to war based on facts and with an exit strategy. Nonsense.

Nip such questioning in the bud by saying that talk of withdrawal shows a clear lack of good
breeding and a lack of support for the troops. (Remember your strategy: What Would a Bush Do?")

"Now run along and play with your cardboard mommy."

Be aware that the child may counter with "But I want my real mommy.
Isn't bringing her home a way to support the troops?"

Label this behavior as disruptive and unpatriotic. Begin to investigate interventions.
These may include, but not be limited to, hours of Rupert Murdoch fair and balanced TV.

Explain to the child he and other little boys and girls of deployed soldiers are lucky to have
an army of flat daddies and mommies. The cutouts go to family reunions, T-ball games, even lean
against the dinner table at meals. It's almost a Norman Rockwell painting.

Of course, the Flat Mommies and Daddies don't read bedtime stories. Give their children hugs.
Or tell them "I love you."

Nor do they guarantee the real parents will come home alive.

But don't waste your beautiful mind thinking about that.

Simply tell children of deployed parents:

"Be a good American, hug your Flat Daddy and don't question the war."

Send your love-it-or-leave-it comments to annehart1

Go to the Web site www.flatdaddies.com.

Read more of Anne Hart's Sunday columns at savannahnow.com/node/93615

or her blog "Mothering H(e)art" at savannahnow.com/node/218897.

---------------------------------------------

Flat Daddies and Flat Mommies are life-size printed posters of parents who are actively
serving overseas in the military. These posters are made available free* to the children
of deployed service members through the generous support of sponsors.

http://flatdaddies.com/ is dedicated to helping make this possible.

--------------------------

Guard families cope in two dimensions

`Flat Daddy' cutouts ease longing

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/08/30/guard_families_cope_in_two_dimensions/



More......

Yes! Now Mommy can be replaced by a cardboard cut out!!! :grr: :nuke:

'Happy Mother's Day' to our soldiers serving in Iraq.
:hug:

[Jim__]

1. "...So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"

It's irrelevant. After, it's certainly not any of my kids in those body bags. :sarcasm:

[Breeze54]

3. No kidding. What's weird is when I

clicked on this link in google search?? My whole computer froze up!!

I wonder if her blog is being hacked by the GA war's cheerleaders??

I had to search for the title at that website, to access it.

Google's link is messed up. Strange, eh?

[krispos42]

2. First rec! Yay!

And when will the Pentagon start giving out Flat Kiddies to deployed soldiers?

I think that's a wonderful idea. They could help with the 'surge', yanno?

[Breeze54]

8. Thanks!

Flat Kiddies? ... hmmmm... I doubt the military would allow it but not a bad idea!

[krispos42]

9. Maybe if we glued them to the side of our Humvees...

It would make the insurgents think twice...

Yeah, right.

Maybe if all the Flat Kiddies had glasses and pet kittens. After all, who can kill a cute kitten?



AWWWWWWW!!!!

[Truthseeker013]

4. "Be a good American, hug your Flat Mommy or Daddy and don't question the war."

(more applause)

I was checking my LukewarmMail account last night, and came across a story with a similar vein (sort of), about a female lieutenant in the National Guard who was also a single mother, divorced from her husband for six years before being called to active duty. She was forced to let her husband keep their daughter while she risked life and limb for her country. Upon her return, she went to get her child from her husband, only to find out that she'd been *stripped* of custodial rights, and would have to go to court to get her child back. Says something, doesn't it? (I'd post this, but MSNBC doesn't allow hotlinking of its stories, and I haven't found the story in any other service yet.)

[Breeze54]

5. It is posted here at DU already!!

Welcome to DU!! :hi:

I read that here on DU last night. I'd have to do a search for it.

It sucks that her ex took advantage of her deployment to pull such an underhanded stunt!!!

What a complete fucking asshole he is! No wonder he's 'the EX'!! :grr:

[Breeze54]

6. Found it --> "Deployed Troops Battle for Child Custody"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x830621

Deployed Troops Battle for Child Custody

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070505/paren...

Deployed Troops Battle for Child Custody

PAULINE ARRILLAGA | AP | May 5, 2007 05:22 PM EST

[Breeze54]

7. WOMEN AFTER WAR - A Single Mother's Challenges (16,000 single moms serving in Iraq & Afghanistan)

WOMEN AFTER WAR

A Single Mother's Challenges

Yearning to Be Whole Again
Sergeant Sees the Light After Year of Emotional, Family Turmoil

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/23/AR2006112301236.html

By Donna St. George
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 24, 2006; Page A01

When they called her name, she could not move. Sgt. Leana Nishimura intended to walk up proudly,
shake the dignitaries' hands and accept their honors for her service in Iraq-- a special coin,
a lapel pin, a glass-encased U.S. flag.

But her son clung to her leg. He cried and held tight, she recalled. And so Nishimura stayed where
she was, and the ceremony last summer went on without her. T.J. was 9, her oldest child, and although
eight months had passed since she had returned from the war zone, he was still upset by anything that
reminded him of her deployment.

He remembered the long separation. The faraway move to live with his grandmother. The months that
went by without his mother's kisses or hugs, without her scrutiny of homework, her teasing humor,
her familiar bedtime songs.

Nishimura was a single mother -- with no spouse to take over, to preserve her children's routines,
to keep up the family apartment.

Of her three children, T.J. seemed to worry most. He sent letter after letter to the war zone,
where she was a communications specialist, part of the Maryland National Guard.

"He went from having one parent to having no parents, basically," Nishimura said,
reflecting, "People have said, 'Thank you so much for your sacrifice.'
But it's the children who have had more of a sacrifice."

When war started in Iraq, a generation of U.S. women became involved as never before--
in a wider-than-ever array of jobs, for long deployments, in a conflict with daily bloodshed.

More than 155,000 women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Among their ranks are more than 16,000 single mothers, according to the Pentagon, a number that
military experts say is unprecedented.

How these women have coped and how their children are managing have gone little-noticed as the war
stretches across a fourth year.

more..........

[Breeze54]

10. Just wanted to give 'congrats' to the inventor of Flat-Daddies!

:sarcasm:

[cyberpj]

11. Kick.

[PinkyisBlue]

12. This would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

This is how the Republicans promote family values. Better a cardboard cutout that doesn't think or question than a living, breathing mom or dad.

Maybe we can all be replaced with a cardboard cutout. We can have a Flat Patriot, in which we are wearing a US flag on our lapel and carrying a small flag, a Flat Capitalist, where we are dressed in business attire (adorned with the requisite US flag lapel pin) and carrying a briefcase, or the Flat Immigrant, in which we are dressed in overalls and baseball cap, sporting an "I Love Bush" button on our shirt.