31 May 2010 - Memorial Day

How many times has someone said "how are you?" - not seeming to care how you answer?

On the news this am , I heard over and over  "they made the ultimate sacrifice....and Celine Dion's having twins !!"  What do we REALLY mean when we say 'they made the ultimate sacrifice'?  I still do not understand why newspapers don't put a box on the front page w/the names of those who made 'the ultimate sacrifice'--the newspapers  do not need to comment, pro war,anti war--just recognise the ultimate sacrifice.

Are we listening ?  Or, is today another "how ya doing" and before an answer comes, we've already moved on?

 A friend's son, a veteran of this Iraq war, died recently. The exact cause and reason may never be known. It appears that it was a drug overdose. Maybe suicide, maybe an accident.  His mother,my friend, tells me that he lost something when he went to Iraq - something deep in his soul - - something deep from his soul, didn't come back. He will never be listed as having made the ultimate sacrifice.

The childen, spouses, lovers, parents and friends . cry at the graves of their loved ones, learning the permanence of death.

Another sacrifice :

A ... Marine is fighting for his life after being attacked for the second time during a deployment

24 year old John Peck is in critical condition after his family says he stepped on an IED while serving in Afghanistan. Peck just landed in the the United States today and is suffering life threatening injuries.His grandfather tells us the marine had three limbs amputated , part of his arm and both legs.

This is Peck's 2nd tour and 2nd time he was attacked in the last five years.He received a brain injury in 2005 after a bombing in Iraq.

Peck ...went to Jefferson high school  in Rockford,Ill .He was in Afghanistan less than a month before he was injured

Our soldiers sacrifice......and sacrifice....in so many ways, they sacrifice.....

~Louie b.

OMAHA BEACH MEMORIES

My father served in World War II.

I know he landed at Omaha Beach.

He only talked about some of the "good times".

I pushed him to talk - he pushed back, harder.

When we got older, he assured me that we'd go for a beer some day and talk.

I pushed for the beer-talk, he pushed back, harder.

That conversation never came...he went, he died,  and took the answers to my questions with him .

LbF

[as I drove across the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Bridge today, I wondered again, are there any Vietnam war veterans living under this bridge?}