Every morning my home page takes me to the news, and everyday there are pictures of people sobbing for the loss of their children and families. I picture each family, waking from their sleep and getting the sad news that their loved one has perished. There are moments when I can feel and know their grief.
Thank you for the poem, Joe. Yes, it is true, tears do remind our hearts that we are alive. With all the bad news, though, I could use a few more "heart sings" than heartbreaks. I seem to be surrounded by heartbreaks right now.
Our newspaper doesn't show the photos. It just lists the names & short obits. Unless the lost soldier is a local, then it gets front page treatment.
The wall.
Going to the wall in Washington was overwhelming. The names. The rows of names. The people tracing their friends' names. The flowers tucked into crevices in the wall.
I can still feel that feeling in my stomach from approaching the wall.
The wall and the names had such a powerful effect. Much more meaningful to me than the statues of men with guns we find in so many small towns around here.
Thinking about how young so many of these men and women are. I know that if I'd met them, I'd have thought they were too young to make any important decisions yet.
Very powerful.
And they really were too young, imo.
My father, a WWII vet, always said they have to take them young. If they waited until they were full grown, they'd have too much sense to take orders.
The first time I sidled up to the wall I bawled like a baby...and the second time...and the third time...
Me too.
And I feel the same as your dad, Eva.
the wall...I moved on from 1969-1970 and have led a pretty happy life, but I've never made it to the wall. I tried a couple or three times and once one of the vets who volunteers there offered to help. But it didn't happen.
the wall...there was such a battle over its design and yet when you see it you can't see it ever being different. One of the most powerful monuments I have ever seen.
Mourning for me is a private and personal thing, and I'm not afraid to cry when the moment moves me.
real Johnboy, maybe the moveable wall will come to your town.
I was surprised that it has the same impact.
Yeah, the design is perfect. I was thinking that, too. it couldn't be anything else.
It pains me that very few mourn for the innocent Iraqis that have been killed. They also have loved ones. Many were children - that pains me the most. c.i.
I always think about the children.
I grieve about bombs: all the children, all the adults, all the villages, all the cities, all the countryside, all the earth.
Still more gone today.
And yesterday too.
Do not let this day pass without at least a nod to the mothers.
The one's who are losing their children to this cause.
and
the ones who are in the middle of Iraq right now
with their children here at home.
Quote:Still more gone today.
And yesterday too.
Do not let this day pass without at least a nod to the mothers.
The one's who are losing their children to this cause.
and
the ones who are in the middle of Iraq right now
with their children here at home.
And still they fall, now over 800......
Joe
