The last few minutes of GMA are always so moving. Their Three Words campaign is something that has gotten viewers involved in the business of media broadcasting and get a few seconds, and three words to show each other, the praises, the struggles, the little things in life that make it worth while.
I have wanted to send in my little snip-et of my three words for a while now... but the thing is... what are my three words!? What would yours be?? It's a hard question to answer right? Summarizing your life at this particular moment into three words!?
Then, as the next hour of news started, the top story was about... can you guess? The War in Iraq, of course. When DJ was told that the deployment order had been changed from Iraq to Afghanistan, he hated it. He had heard the stories from the last deployment, he wasn't looking forward to it. Me? I didn't KNOW. I didn't know what was going on in Afghanistan, I didn't know why we had to be there... I just knew that we were. Then DJ left to Germany to train and prepare for war in Afghanistan. (After the past few months of learning Arabic dialects for Iraq...and training for "that" kind of war.)
After this story on TV about the War in Iraq, I figured out my Three Words.
WHAT ABOUT AFGHANISTAN?
A few weeks back, Anderson Cooper and all the news stations covered very closely the Five Year Anniversary of the War in Iraq. Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan is coming up on SEVEN years!!
Today I got an email from my FRG leader about an article published in the Washington Post about the 1-503D of the 173rd Airborne Combat Brigade, my hubby's unit.
(Post Article: 1-503D Afghanistan-Pakistan Border).
It was nice to hear SOMETHING. I have been reading a lot on the net about President Bush's NATO conferences, but I haven't seen much on TV. The majority of America does not know how to surf the net. [I know that sounds stupid to say, but the majority is comprised of an older generation that didn't know you could Google all the answers to your questions.] It just felt reassuring that... we haven't totally abandoned our service members in Afghanistan. (By the way, if I ever generalize and say 'soldier' instead of marine, airman, or seaman, forgive me, force of habit.}
I work at a high school and the teacher I work with was out. The substitute was a Sergeant in the US Army Reserves. She had been deployed twice in her career, first to Afghanistan and recently to Iraq. When she asked where DJ was, she replied, "That is like the forgotten war..." & it is!! My husband was annoyed on a phone call one day when he told me that I was the only person who wrote, emailed, sent packages... there were things like Any Soldier, America Supports You, church groups, etc. But... friends, family... a bit scarce. This is a man who has a wife, who gets the occasional letter from brother, mom, email from grandma, gets packages from strangers... and he said he felt forgotten.
There is this picture of us from his Airborne graduation... we are smiling in the foreground, but behind us is a line of soldiers standing at attention... no family members who flew out to Georgia to congratulate them, hug them, tell them they were amazing and one of a kind... if my husband (who had his wife and father at that graduation, and his mom, stepdad, dad, brother, sister-in-law, nephew and wife at basic graduation) feels forgotten... what about the single soldiers who don't have a sweetheart who is writing them, sending packages...?? Now every time I see that picture I think that thought... and it sucks!!!!!
America... needs to wake up.
We are at war. This is a time of war!
I work at a high school as a tutor for the AVID program. I like to ask my students questions to get them thinking... CRITICALLY thinking. We just passed WWII. So, I asked some of my sophomores...
"What can you take from learning about WWII?"
---No Answer---
"You don't think learning about war is going to help you with anything in your life?"
"No...?"
"Guys... are we at war right now?"
"Oh yeah!"
"So knowing what you know about society, war, people, WWII... what do you think you can use to apply to your life? Because history affects you..."
(One student says) "Honestly, I didn't even know we were still at war. Didn't it end like a while ago"
America. Wake up. Smell the MREs!!! Maybe I am being completely biased... because I am an Army wife?? I was asked once, "Do you think you would still act that way and give the war that much more attention if you weren't married to a soldier?" (She was interviewing me for a chapter of a book targeting military families.) I answered, "No, because I have always been a believer in America. You have to be a citizen, an informed citizen... a participating citizen, and the only way to do that is to get up, read a newspaper, watch the news, Google it, and ask questions." I never push my beliefs on my students or anyone who decides to open up conversation, I just ask questions. I fish for thoughts... and I want my students to do the same. It is all about having a point of view.
"America is not at war.
US soldiers are at war.
America is at the mall."
Tragic, isn't it. But it's so true.
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