image: A women kneels next to commemorative plaques and mourns at a memorial ceremony to honor fallen soldiers of the U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division and Task Force Danger. REUTERS/Alex Grimm
support the Iraqi people
support the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
support CARE
support the victims of torture
support the fallen
support the troops
support the troops and the Iraqi people
read `This is what John Kerry did today,’ the diary by lawnorder that prompted this series
read Riverbend’s blog – `Bagdhad Burning’
read Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches
witness every day
image and poem below the fold
Untitled
by Wendell Berry
To my granddaughters who visited the Holocaust Museum
on the day of the burial of Yitzak Rabin, November 6th 1995.
Now you know the worst
we humans have to know
about ourselves, and I am sorry,
for I know you will be afraid.
To those of our bodies given
without pity to be burned, I know
there is no answer
but loving one another
even our enemies, and this is hard.
But remember:
when a man of war becomes a man of peace,
he gives a light, divine
though it is also human.
When a man of peace is killed
by a man of war, he gives a light.
You do not have to walk in darkness.
If you have the courage for love,
you may walk in light. It will be
the light of those who have suffered
for peace. It will be
your light.
caption, continued: Some 193 soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division and Task Force Danger lost their lives during both wars in Iraq.
Oh my. I’ve just started crying. Thank you.
there go I.
Thank you for another morning.
Grief. This one carries that word to the forefront.
War doesn’t bring “peace and understanding”. It’s just another word for murdering those you don’t agree with – control via murder.
there is no answer
but loving one another
even our enemies, and this is hard.
But remember:
when a man of war becomes a man of peace,
he gives a light, divine
though it is also human.
Just had to write that part again…when I lived outside of DC, I used to go to Arlington Cemetary once a month (even before my gandfather and grandmother were interred there, they were both cremated). Just to stand there surrounded by of all those crosses, line after line of them, disappearing into the distance. It gives a perspective that is utterly unique.
…Rub, I recall how activists in the anti-nuke movement of the late 1970s and 1980s frequently got burned out through the sheer awfulness of thinking about what would happen if a nuke war occurred. So some of us – including Pam Solo (the nun who later won a MacArthur Genius Award) – became involved for a time in “despair retreats.” These were both introspective and joyful events designed to raise spirits (both of the activists and the spirit-energy of some lovely mountain valley or lake or wherever we were).
I trust that while you provide this service to us here and at Daily Kos, you’re doing something energizing for yourself to keep depression at bay.
Thanks for your work.
Agree Meteor Blades. Empathy is an energy-using emotion, and the need to make sure you care for yourself – revive etc. – is really important for those who do `grief work.’
It’s so important, but it weighs so heavily.
Just a cursory glance at those inscribed names compared to taking each inscription and conjuring the human being they were, and all that entails …
It’s very sad.
are the comments like yours and so many others; the recommends; and the visits from regulars, new comers, returning friends, and the all the folks who take a moment to be here.
That’s what does it.