this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war and other disasters, and to those who try to help them
cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.
3 images and poem below the fold
Iraqi medics attend to a man injured in an explosion in Najaf, Iraq, Thursday Sept. 29 2005. In the holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, an attacker set off an explosion in the home of a bodyguard of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday, killing two people and wounding five, al-Sadr aides and a hospital official said.(AP Photo/Alla Al-Marjani)
An Iraqi man is treated in Yarmouk Hospital after being wounded in an armoured car robbery in Baghdad September 25, 2005. Unknown gunmen held up a convoy of armoured vehicles from the Iraqi Ministry of Finance in Baghdad on Sunday and killed two people before making off with $850,000 in cash, police said. The gunmen forced the vehicles to a halt as they travelled through Mansour, an upmarket district in the west of the capital. REUTERS/Ali Jasim
A hospital employee attends to a wounded Iraqi man following the latest Baghdad, Iraq car bombing Monday Sept. 26 2005. A suicide car bomber attacked a police checkpoint guarding several government ministries as Iraqi employees arrived at work Monday morning, killing at least seven policemen and three workers, police said.(AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
from Yellow Stars and Ice
by Susan Stewart
I am as far as the corners of a room where no one
has ever spoken, as far as the four lost corners
of the earth. And you are as far as the voices
of the dumb, as the broken limbs of saints
and soldiers, as the scarlet wing of the suicidal
blackbird, I am farther and farther away from you.
And you are as far as a horse without a rider
can run in six years, two months and five days.
I am as far as that rider, who rubs his eyes with
his blistered hands, who watches a ghost don his
jacket and boots and now stands naked in the road.
As far as the space between word and word,
as the heavy sleep of the perfectly loved
and the sirens of wars no one living can remember,
as far as this room, where no words have been spoken,
you are as far as invention, and I am as far as memory.
– – –
support the Iraqi people
support the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
support CARE
support the victims of torture
remember the fallen
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 Bagdhad Burning
read Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches
read Today in Iraq
Leonard Clark’s blog has been taken down
witness every day
………and life goes on…and so it is the same as much as it changes……
Thanks again….hugs
What you do matters. I will see it every day, and I tell my students about it. I have many students from all over the world in my classes. I want them to know that someone here notices, and I tell them about your work.
I’m glad you do that. It’s so imprtant. The same as what Rubdmc is doing here.
I had a long talk yesterday with an 18 yr. old friend of the family who is down here from upstate NY. He came down on his own and he was living in a tent. Well I put an end to that! Now he’s staying with us until he finds his own place or goes back home. The thing is he was telling me he wanted to join the Army……he’s a perfect example of so many who join because of economic hardship and a lost sense of direction. I think I have him turned around for now, but just in case, I’ll be sticking pretty close to him for a while.
You may just have saved a life, supersoling. He is lucky to have found some shelter from the storm with your wonderful family. (the pictures of your kids yesterday were stunning — what beaufitul people they are — they all have your eyes).