War [View all]

[H2O Man]

My younger son sent me the above link. This is among the most important things that I have ever encountered in my life.

We watched it last week, before going to a community college to watch my youngest daughter graduate. One of her high school classmates -- he and she graduate from high school next month -- just joined the US Marines. A young man from last year’s class, who recently completed “boot camp,” had convinced him it was the best option.

These young men are fellows I watched grow up. I walk the corn fields with one’s father, looking for artifacts. I’ve bought corn from the older one’s family, at their family farm stand, a quarter-mile down the road.

My son has considered joining the military. He said that this video changed his mind.

Today, all four of my children will be here. Some other family and friends, too. We will remember the service of family and friends.

I can’t help but think of a kid who went to school with my sons and nephews. I watched him grow up, and I remember him on various sports teams, much like the two kids from my daughter’s school. He joined the service for entirely patriotic reasons. He died in Iraq. The biggest part of him that was returned for burial was one of his hands. And for what?

Fuck George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and the rest of those shitheads.