Original Message: ----------------- From: Robert Seeberger [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 18:08:50 -0500 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: I have a new hero
>> The sort of thing that happens every day in Iraq... >Ahhhhhhhhh......no it doesn't.....no no no.....not at all. I guess that depends on what "the sort of thing" means. Clearly, we don't lose 30 Americans in Iraq every day....I'm not even sure we have lost 30 Americans since the conclusion of major combat. 30 people dying at Baghdad university is not an everyday occurance, either. Larger death tolls have occured, but not every day. In Baghdad, of course, the death rate is roughly 30/day....so that's what happens every day. That may be what Nick is referring to....but he later refers to Americans. >> I heard today that Stanford held a memorial in which they read the >> names of the Virginia Tech students who died. I can't help but feel >> frustrated that while they were so quick to identify with the victims of that >> insanity, where are the memorials to the mostly college-age people who are >> sacrificing themselves in the war? If it makes sense to identify with unwilling >> victims of senseless violence, doesn't it make even more sense to identify >> with those who willingly put themselves in harm's way, even if you >> believe that the cause in Iraq is just as senseless as the crime in Virginia? >Nick? Are you weirding out on us? What would ever make you think that people do >not identify with our soldiers and their families? My wife and I discuss that >particular issue regularly. And more, my wife in particular goes out of her way >to befriend the wives of military men. Even the most strongly anti-war folks I >know take pride in our military people. >There have been quite a few memorials to our fighting soldiers of the >sort held at Stanford for the VT victims (among other places) over the >last few years. Where have you been? >The only reason there is not some hulking physical monument to our >Veterans of Iraq is that the war is not over yet. I think this is valid, but I don't think it gets to the point. Let's think of another group of college students who die: those who die accidently as a result of the abuse of alcohol. That number is about 1700/year....and doen't include the thousands of non-college students in the same age group who die this way. Soldiers do get their pictures on CNN, as do the VA tech. students. Don't we care about those young men and women? I think we do. The memorials for these people tend to be a lot more private and localized...often a cross, burned out candles, and molding teddy bears at the intersection where they died (something seen too frequently in the Woodlands). Rather, I think that their deaths are, unfortunately, part of the normal flow of life in the US. Virtually every year, high school kids in our neighborhood die due to auto accidents, shootings, or suicides. It hurts, but it isn't news. We cannot stop our lifes for the memorial service for every kid who dies this way. Rather, we have national morning when the nation as a whole is affected. Mass killings at a college campus attacks our sense of safety. Parents worry about sending their kids off. College students worry that they might be next. Memorial services are for those who go to the services....we are the ones who need it. So, the fact that the last soldier from the Woodlands had a parade in their honor before their memorial service, and the kids who died when drunk drivers hit them didn't doesn't bother me....it doesn't tell me that those kids' lives are less valuable. I do think it's valid to consider those who lay down their lives to protect others heroes, while those who die because someone else did something wrong are not called heroes. There's nothing wrong with being a victim, like those who were shot at VT, but that doesn't make one a hero. The professor was a hero. Stopping an armed gunman by blocking a door with one's body as it is being hit by bullets is a heroic act. I'm positive that there are actions by our soldiers in Iraq that are equally as heroic....but point to the national television coverage of their families being consoled by the President after he praises their soldier's courage as an example of the fact that they are not forgotten. > >> Right now, I feel shouting at every college student who is thinking, >> "That could have been me," to consider that the same is true for the >> 3,300+ who made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq. >Big difference Nick. >You have to choose to join the military to go to Iraq to be shot at. >The students and staff of VT were given no choice in the matter. There was an intersting feature about a guy in Iraq being upset when he heard about the violence at VT (when he called his sister who was a student there). Iraq is _expected_ to be a dangerous place. A college campus in VA is not. Violence like this at school undermines feelings of safety than having to face violence in certain areas. Dan M. -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web.com – Enhanced email for the mobile individual based on Microsoft® Exchange - http://link.mail2web.com/Personal/EnhancedEmail _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
