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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFor Memorial Day, A Jo'rneyman's Song
Shipping Specialists Staff Sgt. Star Samuels, front,
and Tech. Sgt. Willard Rico, rear, place a U.S. flag
over a casket during a dry run of procedures for the
dignified transfer of remains shipping process at the
Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs, Dover
Air force Base, Delaware, March 31, 2009.
(Photo: Staff Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III / US Air Force)
A Jo'rneyman's Song
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed
Monday 28 May 2012
For tomorrow we laugh and tomorrow we cry
Tomorrow we dance and tomorrow we die
And tomorrow you will be my yesterday song
And I would die richer for having you known
Sing away, hey, a Jo'rneyman's Song
Tonight I will drink to you all evening long...
His name was Ryan J. Wilson. He was from California, 26 years old, and he died on the 20th of May serving in the Afghanistan war. According to the Department of Defense, Ryan J. Wilson was the 3,000th member of the coalition forces fighting that war, and the 1,974th American, to die since it began a decade ago.
We still don't do body counts - we do drones by the score, but not body counts - so I can't tell you how many Afghani soldiers and civilians have also died over these last ten years. I can't tell you their names, how old they were, or where they came from. I wish I could, but since that information is not available due to reasons of national security and stuff, I thought you should have at least one name to dwell on over this long, relaxing weekend.
His name was Ryan J. Wilson. He was 26, from California, and I will never get to meet him and thank him for his service.
I've noticed, lo these last few years, how mainstream and awesome and cool our wars have become. We have one urban combat video game after another, complete with insane, hard-core graphics that give the player a real taste of actual combat. Isn't that cool? There have been a bunch of movies, too, capitalizing on everything from horrible injuries to PTSD to multiple deployments - you know, the stuff actual soldiers have been dealing with for ten years now - in order to entertain us.
Are we not entertained? Of course we are. This is America. One death is a tragedy. Five is a massacre. Thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths? That's just foreign policy, and a bitchin' video game, and nine dollars at the multiplex on Friday night. Granted, war stories and war games have been part of our cultural American consciousness since the shots fired on the Lexington green, but it seems almost pornographic to turn what has happened over the last decade into a cash cow.
There's a commercial on local TV here in Boston for a jewelry store sale that uses "Shock and Awe" as its tag line. The diamonds and bracelets and necklaces are displayed against an olive drab camouflage background, with the voice-over crowing, "Give her shock and awe, fellas, and buy her this blab la bla-diddy-bla..."
His name was Ryan J. Wilson.
The rest: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/9407-a-jorneymans-song
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