UNITED BY GRIEF - N. CA Families Televised Encounter

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/09/MNGKE8LUFE1.DTL

As the U.S. war in Iraq passed a grim milestone this week — 1,000 American soldiers killed in action — The Chronicle brought together family members from Northern California whose loved ones are among the dead. Their thoughts and experiences are featured here and in an electronic “town hall’’ broadcast this evening from 7 to 8 p.m. on CBS 5-TV and KCBS radio (740 AM)..

There is a bond among families who have lost loved ones in war. A bond of pain that can seem absolute and unremitting. They may differ, as other Americans do, over the rights or wrongs of the Iraq war or whom they are going to vote for come November. But as the sister of one lost soldier says at a town hall-style meeting to be broadcast on Bay Area television tonight: "We are all on the same side when it comes to our grief."

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"He was killed 100 days ago today," said Karen Meredith, Lt. Ballard's mother. "You just miss their voice. You miss every single day. And it isn't 100 days ago, it's one day 100 times over. ... When's it going to stop hurting? And when do you stop missing them?"

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In some areas of the survey, the families differed sharply. Thirty-eight percent said the decision to invade Iraq was the right one, but more than half said it was not. More than a third said they would vote for Sen. John Kerry for president, and a quarter supported President Bush. The rest either declined to answer, saying they had not decided or that they wished a better candidate were available.