I realize that there are those certain subjects in life that you aren’t ‘supposed’ to talk about to avoid criticism, and conflict. God. Religion. Political views. War. So here I am breaking the rules. My opinions are just that, my opinions. I am not in any way stating that I am right, and other views are wrong, I’m just saying this is what I think.
I grew up in Annapolis and today I live in Bethesda around the corner from Bethesda Navy Medical center and work in a restaurant just down the street from Walter Reed Army Medical Center. I have many friends in the military and know many who have been deployed. Most people in their haven’t been exposed to this much military, or better yet, this many injured people in military. I see it first hand. Countless times injured Iraqi War Vets have come into the restaurant I work amputated legs, leg blown off, face full of shrapnel scars, wired shut jaw, one arm. It breaks my hearts, and I have to hold the tears back. They don’t deserve this…not one of them. They are fighting for their country and if they come back, the physical wounds and psychological scars are greater than one could ever imagine.
But as terrible as war is, our country has gotten used to it. Used to the war vets, used to seeing Purple Hearts, used to seeing families with a missing fathers/mothers/sons/daughters. And just today, I got a slap in the face. While reading CNN I cam across an article about a six year old Iraqi boy who had been kidnapped by terrorists for two years and been tortured. TORTURED! What had he done? His father was in the police force. I do not know the boy, never met him, he lives half way across the world but I wept for him.
War is ugly. No matter what your opinion on it is, people die. People get blown up. Families are destroyed. ‘Over there’ is a unknown concept to people in the states…if they don’t see it, it’s just a word: war. There are no lives attached to the word. I think that often we are quick to forget that there are people over there fighting a war for us, and putting their lives at risk, and men and women over here fighting for their lives.
Let this little boys’ story be a reminder. People of all ages, all sizes, all kinds are affected by war and all we can do is hope for a better tomorrow.
2 comments