I've been a little upset since Friday because of something I saw.

My job is to take mentally ill people out into the community. It doesn't pay a lot but it is also not a difficult job and I enjoy it and my wife and I have discussed and concluded that I'll stay where I am and look for advancement.

Last Friday, my client wanted lunch from Arby's and as I was driving him there, we were stopped at a light behind a pick-up truck with an "In Loving Memory Of..." decal on the back windshield. It had the US Marines emblem and it was for a young man who died in January of 2007 just 4 months short of his 22nd birthday. As I looked, I realized that this young man had almost certainly lost his life in the Cheney/Bush administration's unjustified was of lies and for oil in Iraq.

It reminded me of a conversation that I had with my son about 9 months ago, shortly after his 13th birthday. We were out for pizza while my wife was at a ladies' night for one event or another. We were discussing some of his career ideas, which include both the military and law enforcement. He asked if his mother and I would be proud of him if he were to die heroically in combat. As any other father would, I was very disturbed, to say the least, at the thought of surviving my son.

I explained to him that while we WOULD be proud of him, we would also be DEVASTATED by his death. I explained to him that while we would receive all of the medals, decorations, letters and certificates and the flag that would cover his coffin, those are all inanimate symbols. A parent can't invite a medal to come over for a barbecue. Parents can't sit down and watch a movie or a ball game with a flag and we can't spoil the grandchild that was fathered by a certificate. We can't celebrate the birthday of a decal.

I explained to him that we would be proud of him if he simply grew up to be a good man. The last thing my wife and I would ever want is for our son's life to be offered up on the alter of damned Ukraine!

As I looked at the decal on the truck in front of us, I also realized that the man driving that truck is now and for the rest of his life living the worst nightmare of any parent. I felt for the loss that these parents have suffered...and likely for the Cheney/Bush war.

I keep remembering a Clint Eastwood line from close to the end of "The Outlaw Josie Wales" where, referring to the Civil War, he says that he believes that EVERYBODY died a little bit in that damn war. I think the same about both the Vietnam and Iraq wars. There were too damn many young men and women who sacrificed their lives, as well as too damned many families that were crushed by this damn war that Cheney lied us into for the sake of Halliburton's profits as Bush babbled like the moron that he is while reciting his spoon fed fabrications.

That's my 2 cents, and quite possibly overpriced at that!

PEACE!