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THIS is personal!
By Brat
The email arrives with the first coffee:
“****** is a soldier in Iraq who gets NO mail. He has NO family sending him
letters. He is so depressed. He thinks no one cares. Can you help?”
Emails such as this come to me on a regular basis. Then I hear on the news:
“Twenty five soldiers injured today in an insurgent attack – four are in critical
condition and being taken to Germany.”
Another email:
“***, A young fellow from our church, is in the mountains of Afghanistan. He has
nothing. His family is too poor to send packages.”
The mainstream media:
“In Ramadi today 2 US soldiers were killed. Six soldiers were injured.”
And so it goes. As the news reports barrage us all with NUMBERS, some of us know
these numbers are individuals. Every number is somebody’s son, daughter, husband,
wife, mother, father.
But you won’t hear too much about those people behind the numbers if all you read is
the msm. The way the mainstream media reports on this war, it is all about the
numbers. Because of the way the war is covered in the major news media, it is
perhaps understandable that there is a rabid anti-war movement in the US. It is –
maybe – understandable that so many Americans can turn their backs on these sons and
daughters, these beloved family members in harm’s way on THEIR behalf as they bleat
“I don’t support this war.” If you just use the msm for your view on the war, you
might be excused if you forget that behind the numbers there are real people, real
family members.
To hear the anti-war advocates is to know that they do not support the children, the
heroes of America. And THAT I do not tolerate. Oh, these people who demonstrate
against the war outside military hospitals will tell you it is BECAUSE they support
our heroes that they are against the war. Don’t you believe them. They lie!
It is all too easy to quote statistics, whole numbers, and refuse to acknowledge
that these statistics are the human face of our country’s family. This IS what the
anti-war groups do. Don’t believe me? Ask yourself the last time you saw a picture
of Casey Sheehan on one of his mother’s many media junkets. I consider myself quite
well-informed, but I honestly can’t tell you I have seen a picture of Casey. He,
like many of his other brave young counterparts, has ceased to be a young American
with dreams and hopes, and memories of first bike rides, first scraped knees,
first adolescent fumbling kiss, first university classes. These precious
individuals have become pawns in a sick political ‘game’.
I wish I could tell you that the way our soldiers are treated is a FIRST in American
history. But we all know that is not the truth. Just as back in the 70’s, so now
are whole swatches of society choosing to not only NOT support the kids who put
their lives on the line, but to use the numbers to make political points. And
because of that our soldiers are lacking the support that tells them that every
single one of them matters. These days it seems it is all too easy to turn our
backs on our kids because we ‘don’t support the war’. How pathetic and ignorant is
that?
Remember when your child was oh, maybe an exuberant 3 year old, determined to make
their own decisions? You know, decisions like “I can so eat….”(pick something
totally gross here – the kid is 3!).”? Or as a 10 year old determined: “I am soooo
big enough to go to …by myself”? In both those examples, we as parents can see the
dangers ahead, feel the potential for harm to come to our precious children.
But…..do we put our foot down and say “NO!” Do we turn our backs on our kids
because we don’t agree with their decisions, their choices? Of course not. Do we
turn every one of our child’s decisions/choices into political fodder and reject
them because their choice doesn’t fit our OWN agenda? No we do not.
So I have to ask: why is it that in THIS circumstance, in this war, when our
children (or beloved family members) have chosen to sign up for an all volunteer
military, are some of us so able to slam the door in the faces of our kids? How is
it that after all the years of raising our kids to think for themselves, all the
many days and nights of their childhoods instilling OUR values in our children, we
reject them when they make what is probably the biggest decision of their lives?
Every child, every husband, every wife, every mother, every father, has made
decisions within the family group that is not wholly approved of by the majority.
But, does the family group throw the dissenting voice out the door? Not hardly.
Even as we may voice our disagreement with a decision made by our family member,
from a position of passion, belief, a value, we accept and stand up to support the
maker of that decision.
Yet here we are, with our family (and yes – America – we ARE a family) in the fight
for our lives, and we refuse to support our loved ones. I really don’t understand
that. What’s with that?
Of course, there are many, many others who jump in and pick up the slack for these
soldiers who have been shunned by their immediate families. Many step in to stand
with our soldiers and insist that they, as valued family members, be respected,
supported and shown that they matter for more than just political gains. Some Have
Names is one such project that is determined to honour those ‘statistics’ as people,
with names, identities that mean way more to the fabric of this country than mere
statistics. Soldiers’ Angels is an organization that works tirelessly in this war,
to adopt our soldiers, who find themselves far from home with no support - our
children who find themselves fighting for their own lives as they fight for our
cultures, our freedoms. Soldiers’ Angels, and other groups like them., also quietly
make sure that any fallen hero, and their family, is personally honoured for their
sacrifice. And we have the military bloggers. In this war, for the first time in
any war, real soldiers in real time are telling those of us who choose to listen,
what is REALLY happening. Many of the milblogs were created, and are run by
military personnel, in the field, sharing what their daily lives are like. Some of
these blogs are also run by veterans of this war and others. Through the tight-knit
military community online, our family members, serving our country KNOW of the
support that is here for them. In the midst of the drowning cacophony of negativity
which is the politicians and the msm, the milbloggers speak FOR the soldier. Some of
the milbloggers have gone on to write books, and have even been invited to do radio
interviews with a few media outlets; tentative steps by the msm who, whether they
like it or not, are having to acknowledge the real truths that this ‘other’ media
outlet provides.
I guarantee that there is not one community across this land that has not sent at
least a few heroes off to fight in this war. I KNOW that in every town in this
country, brave men and women have chosen to put their values, their personal
freedoms, their lives on the line in a place far away, on behalf of every one of us
back home here.
So, spare me the “I don’t support this or any other war”, rhetoric. Spare me the ‘
“what they are doing over there has nothing to do with me, so I don’t feel I can
support the soldiers” excuses. Don’t – please – bother with the “I don’t have time
for that. I am too busy”. And pleeeeeeeease do not go with the “well the media
says……so how can I support this war?”
There is a saying among the military circles. Goes something like: “If you can’t
stand behind me, feel free to stand in front of me”. I have to tell you, that is
one of my favourite sayings!
Frankly? You don’t support the war? I don’t give a damn. Our family members have
fought throughout history for your right to make such choices. However, I DO care
if you choose not to support our family members. You make that choice, you will
have me to deal with. In MY view, our family members – and we ARE all family -
deserve better from every single one of us.
Brat hails from Tanker Brothers, actually she is a freelance writer/journalist from Canada You can catch more of what she writes on her blog at Tanker Brothers. Thanks Brat.