MutteringfoolDotCom: Today, I am lucky...

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by Suzy Smith since 2000.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Today, I am lucky...

Today, Memorial Day 2007, I am lucky. A good friend of mine is in Iraq, serving in the Marine Corps, in this war. He's on his second tour of duty, and has been over there a couple months, this time.

We email back and forth, a couple times a week. Early in May, he emailed me, I returned the email, then nothing. For weeks, not a word out of Iraq, he hadn't signed into anywhere that I could see.

I got worried. As each day turned over, and there was no email from him, the pit of fear got a wee bit bigger. The worry got to the point, that I searched for his name to see if he was one of the men we had lost, recently.

There were no hits on his name, yet, I was still worried, knowing that names aren't always realized in timely fashion, barring family notifications, the pit remained.

I began opening my email with trepidation at the thought of nothing being in there, again. Then today, I'm going to delete a bunch of email from some discussion lists up on, and his name appeared beside a new email.

And, I was happy. I was joyful. My friend, who is still in danger, is still alive. We can't say that for 3455 other members of our military who have lost their live in Iraq, nor the 247 men and women who have died in Afghanistan. Nor, the hundreds of thousands of others of our miltary personal who have been killed at war, over the history of the United States.

Today, I am lucky. Today, I remember our military personnel who gave their lives in service of our country. I respect our soldiers. I support the well-being of our troops, even while I believe this war in Iraq is wrong.

Today, Memorial Day 2007, I mourn those we have lost, and those we will lose. And, I hope for stronger, more intelligent, leadership in our future.

posted by Suzy @ 3:09 AM

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