Nothing But Love :: golf blogger

LET ME SPELL THIS OUT

i'm waiting for bill to blog about the e-mail and comment he received critical of his right to and/or motives for posting his monthly list of american casualties each month. i think it might just be too hard for him.

if you scroll down on his side to his latest post and list and open the comments, you'll find a comment from "someone" with an e-mail address of somewhere@msn.com..

"How dare you use the names of our soilders who fought and died for a cause they believed in. The servicemen and servicewomen fought to maintain the freedom and democracy in the USA. Remember 9/11. How do you think we will elimate a threat to our nation's freedom? These men and women were in Iraq for the cause not just for a paycheck. They belived in President Bush and stood behind him as do I."

"use" the names? in what way is bill using the names? it is bill's intent to honor these soldiers by naming each of them. we have a 19-year-old son, a 22-year-old son, and a 23-year-old "semi-son." it's not too hard to imagine the grief and suffering surrounding the loss of these soldiers. we grieve for each one of them, their family, and friends. i'm sorry if you don't understand or believe that. too bad.

this is not a site that we maintain for the purpose of making money. we write here for a very limited "audience." first - for ourselves. we write because we want to. not because we're writers. but because we want to put something down. second - for family and friends who are interested. third - because we've met some very nice people here. it's very simple - don't come here if you don't like what we say. we don't care if we have 10 readers a day, as long as they're nice.

for you to think that bill's posting of the names (specifically the one that you search for and come here to find) is anything but his way of trying to honor these people by putting at least their name and hometown to a real person's name is some kind of dishonor to them - only because we have a different point of view on this "war" is ludicrous. you're wrong. period.

i would LOVE to believe that these soldiers fought to "maintain the freedom and democracy in the USA." believe me - that would feel so much better. unfortunately, i / we cannot. we believe, as the 9/11 commission also concluded, that there is no link between Iraq and al-Qaida in attacks against the United States. so yes, we remember 9/11. again, unfortunately, we don't find it possible to stick our heads up our asses and blindly "believe." there are too many reasons not to.

we believe that the president has a sacred duty to use and send our soldiers into harm's way ONLY when absolutely necessary. bush and others lied to us. he sent our children to fight for his own purposes. to die for his own purposes. not for ours. these people are not little green plastic army men. they were human beings. how many more will die?

and just for the record, don't assume that we believe that serving in the armed forces is in some way a dishonorable pursuit. we believe that the principles for which we used to stand - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ALL - are worth serving, honoring, and yes, even dying for. i HAD encouraged my children to consider entering the armed forces when they were younger. i assumed (silly me) that we could depend on our leaders to use my children for honorable purposes [not gas for your hummer or to spread christianity or get revenge for daddy]. i thank god that neither one of them shared my misguided faith in the honor of our leaders.

i STILL believe that serving in the armed forces in honorable and admirable. i just wish our leaders were worthy of their faith.

Posted by Stacey at September 30, 2004 06:15 PM