Monday, May 25, 2009

Too Big A Sacrifice


I just heard the news about a US Army Medic who was killed in a suicide bombing yesterday in Afghanistan. He leaves behind SEVEN children under the age of 14. After I got over the shock I asked myself what's a father of 7 young children doing in a war zone? Then I realized he's probably doing his best to support them. Army enrollment is up due to the bad economy and scarcity of jobs. Oh, Please, Lord, let's get out of Afghanistan. What can we do that the British and the USSR couldn't accomplish???? Don't Presidents do their history homework? Let's fortify our own country and make it impervious to terrorist attacks. There's my political statement for the day. On the home front....Matt has gone to the ER. He held it together for AJ's visit but can't take the back pain anymore. It's been two weeks and he is still in pain. I pray they give him some good drugs so he won't be so cranky. His doctor's apt. is not for another week. Good thing there are emergency services around here because you can't get a doctor quickly. He has all kinds of big stuff happening at work with his Weatherization Boot Camp opening soon. The non-profit he works for, NYSWDA, has had more money made available to them and they have to figure out how to use it. Matt might be building more training centers around the state of NY. I have a friend who has been on the list for weatherization services for FOUR years. She has no insulation, no furnace at all, drafty windows, roof caving in, and a disabled husband and son. (And we are pouring billions into the Middle East in a useless war.) I am so bummed. What to do when I feel this way, angry and frustrated???? Go out into the barn, pick up Monkey's new baby goat and nuzzle his white curls, wander through the lovely fields and breathe the fresh air, come back in and run my little 100 year old sewing machine and make tote bags to carry the weight of the world (and this farm, which is heavier sometimes).

2 comments:

Henya said...

Maggie, this is horrible. I do not think anyone can do anything there. I have friends who fought in Afghanistan in the Russian war, I have a friend who has served a year now with the US army. My Russian friend was totally destroyed by the war and by the rejection of what they did there from people. Afghanistan was for Russia, what Vietnam was for America. I remember that he told me, how right after they got out of there - his draft has ended, he and his friends tried to buy a drink at the airport and was refused because they were underage. He said we were old enough to kill and to die, but not old enough to get a glass of vine. To me it says it all. I hate war and armies. Not the solders themselves, - the entity.

Maggie's Farm said...

Yes, Russia's Afghanistan sounds just like America's Vietnam. I forgot you were probably involved or affected in some way, Henya. When I think what the Russians have been through in the last 100 years - it's just so very tragic!