Read this. All of it.

[Plucketeer]

81. I'm gonna sound pretty callous here

And frankly, I make NO apologies if I sound hard-hearted or uncaring enough. That I seem unable to be sympathetic to some is a result of the non-stop barrage of stories like this young fella's. How much DEEPER can we pound ourselves? How much more grief can we squeeze from our gut? How many boxes of tissues before we start threatening old growth forests? When do we say: That's it! I simply can not digest any more accounts like this without doing myself in!

I could tell you about my time in Vietnam - and some of the unbelievable things I saw there - and I wasn't even wading, chest deep thru rice paddies or leading patrols thru humid, foreboding jungles. War is hell, and then you get to buy stuff made in the country you went to bat for. I now wear denim shorts made in Vietnam, and drive a car made in Korea. I'd buy American if I could afford it - but I can also remind myself how many innocent American kids DIED trying to give those two nations a chance to practice the supposed "freedom" we have here. Which it's not - really.
Unless and until a lowly little dweeb like me has a fair shot at running for public office, we're going to be JUST PAWNS. That's all. Just pawns.
We nod our heads in unison regarding our mutual notion that ALL elections need to be publicly funded - but it never ever even gets out of the starting gate. And I seriously doubt it ever will - at least, not in my lifetime.

I'm worn thin at grieving for those wounded and eliminated on foreign battlegrounds. Sure - they're worthy of being held up as "heros", but what about the thousands of simple citizens blasted away on domestic streets? What about the literal SEIGE we're under, right here in the good ol' USA??? WHEN, I ask, do we recognize the terrorism we live under here? Yet for whatever reason - no one in power will call our situation a terrorist seige. I suspect they're worried at how BAD they'd look if they conceded they can't even keep usw safe here at home.

It's not that I can't feel for young Thomas. It's maybe partly that I envy him bravely exiting the lunacy of our supposed civilizded society on his own terms.