My entire comment from yesterday at Sivacracy.net has been posted by Melissa as an entry entitled I wish this fit on a car bumper.
Thanks Melissa! I am working on telling this story. It is very difficult for me though. I tried to do something along these lines for my Storytelling class this semester but the prof and I decided it was unfair to the other students since I would not be able to get through it without crying on occasion. I have written about it a little for one or two people, and I do talk to people about it on the individual level, although they still get censored versions of it. There is so much more to say and I am desperately attempting to learn how to say it so that others will listen. I only hope it isn’t too late when I do figure it out. And my heathen soul is continually praying that I learn how to talk with my son again!
I wish I could fit my sentiments and ideas on a bumper too, but for now I struggle just to communicate it at all.
Another commentator seemed somewhat offended by my comment that "After giving over 20 years of my life to "support and defend the
Consitution" of the US I feel completely and utterly betrayed by my
nation and its citizens." Well, I do. Sorry ’bout dat! For those who are sorry for having sent my son and tens of thousands of others to fight and die I apologize. I don’t mean it personally on the individual level. Matter-of-fact, just like most of the other thoughts and feelings, it is very convoluted. I sometimes wish that I could divide the world up into so much black-and-white but…
Looked through the paper.
Makes you want to cry.
Nobody cares if the people
Live or die.And the dealer wants you thinking
That it’s either black or white.
Thank God it’s not that simple
In My Secret Life.
Leonard Cohen - In My Secret Life
[Funny, my 1st 'test' blog on Bloglines was titled "My Secret Life" after this song.]
As for my final sentence that: "If you are going to send others off to kill and die in your name then you owe it to them to seriously question why." I do not think this implies any sort of logical connection to others’ behavior. I do think it is an ethical and moral issue. My "you owe it to them" is an ought. Oughts can rarely be arrived at by logic. And although this is a case where one could easily construct a logical arrival at the ought, it still would have no real motivating force in the life of others.