“[I]n times of crisis it’s interesting that people don’t turn to the novel or say, ‘We should all go out to a movie,’ or ‘Ballet would help us.’ It’s always poetry. What we want to hear is a human voice speaking directly in our ear.”
Billy Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate (2001-2003) speaking to the New York Times, as quoted in The Dead Beat by Marilyn Johnson
this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war and other disasters
we honor courage in all its forms – today for those who tell the true stories
cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.
april is national poetry month
image and poem below the fold
With her son, Jimmy, on her lap, Katherine Cathey, the widow of U.S. Marine James Cathey who was killed in Iraq, is consoled by Rocky Mountain News photographer Todd Heisler during a celebration to mark the paper’s win of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing and feature photography on Monday, April 17, 2006, in Denver. Heisler photographed the story of a contingent of U.S. Marines who notify the families of dead soldiers and keyed on Cathey along with News writer Jim Sheeler.
(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
When 2nd Lt. Jim Cathey’s body arrived at the Reno Airport, Marines climbed into the cargo hold of the plane and draped the flag over his casket as passengers watched the family gather on the tarmac. During the arrival of another Marine’s casket last year at Denver International Airport, Major Steve Beck described the scene as one of the most powerful in the process: “See the people in the windows? They’ll sit right there in the plane, watching those Marines. You gotta wonder what’s going through their minds, knowing that they’re on the plane that brought him home,” he said. “They’re going to remember being on that plane for the rest of their lives. They’re going to remember bringing that Marine home. And they should.”
(Todd Heisler photo in a story by Jim Sheeler, for the Rocky Mountain News)
Wound
by Inge Pederson
Cold comes from every corner.
It’s snowing.
And from the train Europe looks like
a brittle romantic poem
in which the lakes close
their black moon-
lost eyes and trickling
roses can be lying on the ground
around a perfectly ordinary house
containing a perfectly ordinary family
and then suddenly seep out
like blood through
a snow-white bandage.
note: here’s the diary referencing Heisler and Sheeler’s work. Here’s one of their stories.
– – –
put a meaningful magnet on your car or metal filing cabinet
read Ilona’s important new blog – PTSD Combat
view the pbs newshour silent honor roll (with thanks to jimstaro at booman.)
take a private moment to light one candle among many (with thanks to TXSharon)
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 Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors – TAPS
support Gold Star Families for Peace
support the fallen
support the troops
support Iraq Veterans Against the War
support Military families Speak Out
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
Click on the candle to copy the image into your own comment (you can leave it on my server), and/or rate this one – not for mojo, but to leave a small mark after taking this moment.
” I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.”
from Dirge Without Music
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Peace
Why wasn’t the coffin already draped with a flag?
At least they were taken off the airplane first.
again, none of this should be happening. None of it.
SAN DIEGO — There’s controversy over how the military is transporting the bodies of service members killed overseas, 10News reported.
A local family said fallen soldiers and Marines deserve better and that one would think our war heroes are being transported with dignity, care and respect. It said one would think upon arrival in their hometowns they are greeted with honor. But unfortunately, the family said that is just not the case.
Dead heroes are supposed to come home with their coffins draped with the American flag — greeted by a color guard.
But in reality, many are arriving as freight on commercial airliners — stuffed in the belly of a plane with suitcases and other cargo.
yet another ref
and it keeps on going and going
Janet, I hope these above answers your question. They are supposed to be. Plain and simple. NO matter what!!!!form of transportation they use to transport the body. A “honor guard” is to be present and accounted, for as well.
here
Thanks Brenda.
I about freaked when I heard they weren’t all in draped-covered coffins with Honor Guards but INSTEAD in cardboard, flown as freight.
And since when did a contingent of Marines break the news??? Used to be a govt car would pull up with Officers and a Chaplain from the branch your husband served..
Really now… a group of Marines is going to tell a Navy wife their spouse is dead??
What next?? a Wal Mart card saying “Sorry about the last one. Got more sons?”
I hate this Bush Government with all my soul.
Exactly, Janet, WHEN!!??
I am sick to my stomach over this. It has been a known factor for quite sometime. Why has this not been stopped??!! I am besides myself, but what is it gonna take to make it stop, I do not know. You know me, and I know you, and we both feel so strongly over this…as much as other do as well, I am very sure.
Thanks Rub. Thanks for bringing this to the forefront of the whole that matters.
This is something I have been very upset over for so long.
Dear Brenda,
It’s eaten away at my husband, too.
Diego Garcia used as psyops.
Haditha, torture, revenge killing of babies in pjs.
Fallujah
Fallujah
Fallujah
Bush/Cheny et al
and how they are sending the dead home in boxes under the cover of darnkess and secret.
My husband has been slowly getting rid of his uniforms. It first started out as his t-shirts from Deigo Garcia. He now juts has one set of dress blues.
… This is not his military.
I hear ya Janet…I really do! I want you to tell your husband I understand and manyby, “it don’t mean nothing”..he will understand what I mean. This has brought back such ugly thoughts and memories of things for us all! I find I am trying hard to find pleasent things and thoughts, however far and few inbetween they just might be. I am constantly ill in my demanor over all of this feces the government is handing out to our citizens and military personnel..not good an dsoon, I hope it will come back to bite them in the butt over all of this feces. Hugs to you and hubby….I do understand….
for the link to such a touching story. The tears are still in my eyes.
and for poetry month:
typo, dammit.
3rd line should have “night-dogs” not “might-dogs.”
Iraq, US troops under fire as rebels exploit power vacuum
Semper Fi, Marine…………peace. I bow my head in reverence for this Marine.
You bet they will always remember. The tide is a turning…slowly how ever slowly, it is turning…
The Navy Hymn {for my Marine brother}
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidest the mighty ocean deep
It’s own appointed limits keep.
O hear us when we cry to thee,
For in peril on the sea.
(4th verse…..)
O Trinity of love and power,
Our breathern shield in danger’s hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them where e’er they go:
Thus ever-more shall rise to the
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea
I so remember sitting in the chapel of the main church, where John Paul Jones is buried, at Annapolis, singing this hymn for all that should and will and have died for our nation.
I know what war is made of…the deaths of our loved ones, no matter what side we are on. It is ugly and forever the most horrible thing to have to imagine. God please take rest on their souls……They were just doing their honorable duty, is all, I will ever pray.
This is absurd. Impeach NOW.
Not one more child should be without a parent,
Not one more parent should be without a child.
Not one more brother should be without their sister,
Not one more sister should be without their brother.
Not one more friend should be without a friend,
Not one more casket should leave without a flag.
Not one more lie, not one more life.
Light A Candle For
Peace, Tolerance, Understanding
and For The Children – Innocence Lost!
Veterans for Peace, Chapters 25, 27, and 99, have joined with After Downing Street to form Impeach for Peace and Justice (IFPJ), a nonpartisan informal cooperative whose goal is the impeachment of George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney as the quickest and surest method of bringing our troops home from Iraq.
PLANK MEMBERS:
Veterans for Peace, Ch. 25
Veterans for Peace, Ch. 27
Veterans for Peace, Ch. 99
After Downing Street
And VFP National Call: ‘Declaration Of Impeachment’
From Bobbie Over At Veterans For Common Sense Blogs:
Tuesday, 18 April 2006
Stand Your Ground Against Right Wing Veteran Extremist Views of PTSD – Only Valor Stolen is from Vets with PTSD.
A DISPATCH FROM SHEEHANISTAN, TEXAS– ONSTAGE AND BACKSTAGE, A GUEST BLOG FROM TOM CHELSTON IN CRAWFORD
Tom Chelston of Tom Songs