this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war and other disasters
cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.
image and poem below the fold
This undated photo provided by the Arizona National Guard shows Sgt. Howard Paul Allen with his children, from left to right, Edwin, Caitlin and Devlin. Allen, who served in an Arizona Army National Guard military police unit, was killed Monday, Sept. 26, 2005, in Baghdad when a roadside bomb exploded near his military vehicle. He was assigned to the 860th Military Police Company, which was deployed to Iraq on March 5. (AP Photo/Arizona National Guard)
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
by Gary Davis
Death don’t have no mercy in this land.
Death don’t have no mercy in this land.
Well he’ll come to your house, but he won’t stay long.
Look in the bed and somebody’ll be gone.
Death don’t have no mercy in this land.
Death’ll go in any family in this land.
Death go in any family in this land.
Well, he’ll come to your house and he won’t stay long
Well, you look in the bed and one of your family will be gone.
Death don’t have no mercy in this land.
Well, he never takes a vacation in this land.
Old Death never takes a vacation in this land.
Well, he’ll come to your house and he won’t stay long
Well, you look in the bed and your mama will be gone.
Death don’t have no mercy in this land.
Well, he’ll leave you standin’ and cryin’ in this land.
Well, Death’ll leave you standin’ and crying in this land.
Well, he’ll come to your house but he won’t stay long,
Look in the bed and your father will be gone.
Death don’t have no mercy in this land.
Oh, Death always in a hurry in this land.
Death—always in a hurry in this land.
Well, he’ll come to your house, but he won’t stay long
Look in the bed and one o’ your family will be gone.
Death don’t have no mercy in this land.
Well, they won’t give you time to get ready in this land.
No, they won’t give you time to get ready in this land.
Well, he’ll come to your house but he won’t stay long,
Look in the bed and somebody will be gone.
No, they won’t give you time to get ready in this land.
– – –
view the pbs newshour silent honor roll (with thanks to jimstaro at booman.)
support veterans for peace
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
witness every day
to Edwin, Caitlin and Devlin.
I opposed this war from well before it began, and I am working very hard to stop it. The war is not my fault, it’s Bush’s. But I can still say I’m sorry for you.
Stop the war.
tell these children to their facces that YOU NEED TO GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE.
May the warmongers rot in hell.
:*(
Oh man that picture tears your heart apart. That poor family. God Damn Fucking Bush!!!!!!!!!!!
I feel a damp rotting breath on the back of my neck. I turn around and nothing is there, it didn’t come for me…it didn’t come for us…..but it likes to remind me that it had opportunity. I can imagine what it would have done to my family and I know that that is what it has and will do to this one every single day until everybody who knew him is gone from the face of the earth and he is only a story. Long long time for such pain to live on and on. Worst way to lose a parent…..to lies and war profiteers…..will they ever trust the world around them again if they come fully to grips with the whole story of how and why he died?
I’d like to share this here. I’ve shared many “run ins” with Rub… so hopefully this is okay to post.
There were only 36 CodePink members arrested I think because so many could not get past the road blocks. 10 hours in handcuffs on a bus… isn’t that unconstibibleable?? On the bright side, thank dawg the protest wasn’t in New Orleans…
The Red Regime has captured, arrested and vilified the terruhist who is supported by those subversive groups like CodePink and Veteran’s for Peace.
I was asked about the Pink thing: It’s mocking the colored alerts. Otay! But this is a better handle on it.
“I never liked the color pink until I connected with CODEPINK. It reminded me of Barbie dolls, princess parties. Now I can’t get enough of it. Other women have told me they feel the same way. The color is ours now; not Mattel’s, not Disney’s–it represents power, and compassion, and peace. Earlier today, as I stood in an airport bathroom during a stop over, feeling sad about not being with everyone in D.C., I held my hand under the automatic soap dispenser. A glob of bright pink soap fell onto my palm, and it made me ridiculously happy.” Monday, September 26, 2005 – Gayle Brandeis
I stood in an airport bathroom that day too. Trying to stop the tears after the not so subtle escort I received. I was alone and felt down that I could not make it to the protest. I still had my pink slip with me. Then I heard the news that Sheehan and others were arrested. I called my contacts to let them know I had arrived at the airport shaken but not stirred. Then I called my family. As I was talking, a little girl with a pink ribbons in her hair walked by and smiled at me.
After some rather harrowing experiences with the Deliverance people around my county lately, most of which have never served a day in their life let alone served a hungry person a bowl of soup.. I wasn’t sure how a reunion would be with a certain young man I had watched grow up. I just recently met my young friend who returned from Iraq after 3 tours. He had heard I had marched. (I’m sure he was told what a horrible person I am for not supporting Bush). Turns out I didn’t have to say anything to him he had come up behind me as I was pinning another VFP “Bring them Home Now” card on the board. Our eyes met. He just came up to me and hugged me. Then he cried. He came home after risking his life to find most of his friends and family hadn’t even bothered to VOTE. He cried and said – “they don’t care”.
I’ve had rednecks scream at me, call me names, try to rip flags from me… holding a Marine in my arms as we reassured and reunited… was almost like being in DC again.
Thank you Rub.
I cannot tell you how pleased I was to see Code Pink in action. What a delicious act, wearing pink! Freeing pink from an ignominious history: The color worn by the anti-ERA set. The color worn by screaming hecklers outside the Planned parenthood office near my lab one year. The color worn at the Fascinating Womanhood “Graduation Ceremony”. The color worn by anti-suffrage groups in SE Missouri in the early 1900s.
Taking back pink is almost as good as taking back the flag as the sole property of the wingers.
Wow, I did not know all of that, thanks Kidspeak!!! I look awful in pink, but I feel beautiful when I’m wearing it 🙂
and I love Code Pink. Everything they do puts a smile on my face.
The above…
It was like we were both welcoming each other home.
The children… I spent a goodly part of one of my classes today talking about effects of war on children. Many of my students do not understand, even though here we have children here in this area who have seen parents and siblings murdered before their eyes in the Balkans. And other children who have grown up in oppressive conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, seeing their houses bulldozed, orchards cut down, and hope nearly extinguished. And more children who have seen buildings painted with “Remember 1690”, who have seen brothers disappear to return with a bullet through their head. And others who startle with a car’s backfire, and ask if it is la migra.
And there is the dream. It has many forms, but is something like this: There is noise, loud shouting, and guns in the middle of the night. The men come in and Papa is dragged out. More shots. Momma cries, and someone being hit. Now I hear screaming, it is momma. I hide, I am so scared. .. .I am. . I did not. . . I hate. . . I hate them. I hate them.
These children will be no less bereft in their lives, for the loss of their father. May they not be told to “be brave” “be a good little solider” “He died to protect you”. And may someone always be around to love these children quite as fiercely as their father did.
to spare them their father’s fate, or worse.
And let me say something else, as I have just been asked, and I had a person walk in, and did not finish my piece here. I have described here what I have heard from children who suffered from the effects of war in places other than Iraq. I am describing their perceptions, (I had a person walk in, and did not finish) and my point is to focus on their perceptions and losses and how it has and is affecting them. It was not my intention in any way to discount the loss these children pictured here have and will be suffering.
I did not realize I had accidentally given you a 3. EEK sorry 🙂
There was a diarist here…. can’t remember… who had pictures drawn from the children in Dafur. It’ so hard on them…
And I so agree with your statement of we must not tell them to be “brave”… they need to grieve. They need to … this damn war needs to stop.
(((Kidspeak)))
Oh, please. Not a problem. I was shaken up by an over-the-shoulder here in my office after hours critic who snuck up on me – see how I messed up the post! between that and being caught reading about anal glands (don’t ask), it was not one of my finer moments!
None other than our susanhu, always on top of things.
Fantastic and troublesome drawings by the kids.
I hate this war. I was against it before it ever began, and I’m against it still. It makes me sick to see that a bunch of selfish inhuman narcissistic sociopaths have been able to start and continue a war based on lies, destroying many people and their families at every step of the way. It pisses me off that the same set of sociopaths thinks they can “do this war on the cheap”, by neglecting to provide our troops with the porper equpment to keep them safe. It infuriates me that the next step in cost-cutting is to deny healthcare services to these veterans when they return home, broken and missing limbs. I am sick over the fact that soldiers are medicated to keep them in the field, when they should never have put there in the first place. What the fuck is wrong with this country? And why can’t we get more people to wake up and bring and end to this?????
Thanks Rub for all you do to make more people wake up.