Today Iraq hit home for me

[Juan_de_la_Dem]

   Not in the way you would think however.  Not in the way
that I expected. I received no letter from Uncle Sam.  I
received no call from a close or distant relative.  It
happened on my drive home from work.  A drive that typically
takes me away from the cares of my job.  A ride that takes me
through rolling hills and pines on the way to my comfortable
Denver home.  I am lucky in that I live in an area that is
“close in”  - as the MLS listings say.  But today I really
counted my blessings and wished them upon all those who are
truly effected by this nation’s leadership, it’s inability to
manage this country and its absolute resolution to begin and
continue this horrible, unjust war.
   As I drove home, I came upon a very serious accident
between an H2 and a minivan.  It quickly  became apparent that
there were no survivors.  As I approached the air grew heavy. 
I could see it in the policemen’s faces - both young and old -
directing traffic and surveying accident indications.  Very
surreal, very somber.  There was no ambulance on site, and
clearly not one in a rush to reach the scene.  There was not
the courtesy blanket or blinder that typically keeps the
masses from seeing the horrible tragedy that is life and
death.  There was just two crumpled heaps of metal, horribly
twisted in a grassy hole by the side of my 2-lane country
road.  As I passed,  I could see the lifeless human forms
through shattered glass in one of the vehicles and it hit me
like a ton of bricks.  It hit me right in the gut and more
importantly the mind.  These people, their families, their
loved ones…probably not even notified yet of their fate –
tonight weeping from their loss.  Tomorrow, the next day and
the next.  I started to tear up thinking of my fabulous wife,
my (4) great kids - how they would make it without me.  There
but for the grace of God go I.  
   My thoughts expanded and I almost lost it.  Those soldiers
in Iraq.  Those people in Iraq….senseless death is every day. 
This is their reality.  175 blown to pieces in their local
market today – Our nation will not even count them as a loss
or even give them the common courtesy of being a statistic as
this was a roadside bomb or an IED and that doesn’t allow us
to save face.  This happened yesterday, the day before. 
Tomorrow, the next day and the next.  What are we doing.  What
have we done.
   I am a one of those “Shadow” DU’ers and I chime in
sparingly.  It is easy for me to sit at a Starbucks and
contrive a sudo-rant about the BS system and how the
government is all about corporate greed, etc., etc., etc.  Who
do I think I am.  What earthly right do I have to bitch.  I am
quintessentially American.  Self serving, over indulging with
a dose entitlement.  But that is changing.   I have to tell
you that I am morphing into someone who really is starting to
open his eyes to what is going on.  The injustices and the
accompanying denial of our leadership - disguised as clever
press quips and jabs at those who question the actuality of
the situation.  “Let’s call it “political posturing” or
“political theater” if someone has an opposing view.”  This
from the actors on the stage.  These are the very people whose
daily lives are about political position and positive spin. 
Professing fear and terror in the name of all that is right.
   But it’s not right.  It’s not the truth.  And it’s not some
crazy conspiracy theory to consider…just to consider that
maybe these things are not true.  And maybe…just maybe there
is an ulterior motive for this method of leadership.
   Every day, I think more of how to help my fellow Americans
get home or to get their loved ones home.  How to help my
fellow Americans stop the momentum that seems to be spiraling
out of our control into that roadside ditch I witnessed today.

  Tonight I spoke to my wife about going to Washington on
September 15th.  I don’t know if that is something I can get
together or not, but I can tell you that prior to the last
8-10 months and certainly the last 3 years, I would not have
even considered this as a viable option. I would have thought
that this was for college kids who had time off or just plain
old  “somebody else.”  I now am thinking that this is my/our
only choice.  We must decide the difference between right and
wrong and make it known that we will not stand for the
nonsense that is our political system.  We must decide if our
government truly has our best interests at heart and demand
that these interests are represented in a whole and true
spirit.  We must make decisions at the polls that drive the
leaders and the policies that truly support this great nation
and bring it back to the American people.  That is what
brought us this to this lunatic fringe and that is the only
thing that can bring us back.  
   I think that Plato said that We should never discourage
anyone who continues to make progress no matter how slow.   I
would add to that by saying or how small.
   We all have to do our part.  We all have to do more than
chime in on the occasional blog or watch Olberman’s Special
Comments all the while saying, “Yeah, what he said” then
forward on the YouTube link to others in a “showing of
opinion”
  We need to keep chipping away at this stone.  We owe it to
ourselves, we owe it to our children and we definitely owe it
to those who have lost their lives in the name of our right to
chip – no matter where they fall.

[Benhurst]

1. Recommended #1

:kick:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. K&R!

Welcome to DU!

[bonito]

3. K&R!

[Hissyspit]

4. There have been people of all ages, races, classes and from around the country

at the rallies in February, in September 2005 and in 2003 before the war started.

See you in D.C.

[raven880]

61. See you in DC

I applaud your awakening self-awareness. I,too, have been coming around to realizing just how deep the poison has gotten into our government and how much it has eroded the trust the people have had in it. I just got to that realization a bit sooner than you as I made it to the Sept. '05, Jan'07 and June '07 gatherings in DC and my daughter and I are hoping to find a way to get to DC for the Sept15 march too. It will be the first for my daughter who has two preschool children and can ill afford to be away. But she feels it is a sacrifice she (and we) must make even if MSM refuses to acknowledge the presence of hundreds of thousands of protesters. Previously there have been buses organized from the Indianapolis area but so far we haven't found one. If we must, we will drive ourselves because it is just THAT important.
I also have a friend in Tulsa , OK who may drive to Indy to meet us and go with us. To do that she must take time off from a federal job! But she also thinks it's worth the risk.
The Jan '07 march had between 400,000-500,000 marchers.......yet CNN, MSNBC, CBS etc barely mentioned it and just said a "few thousands" of marchers were there. I hope this time we can make it a million.
See you in DC

[Suich]

5. K & R!

Thank you!

[Buck Rabbit]

6. K & R

[calimary]

7. Thank you for this thoughtful piece. Welcome to DU - although it appears

you've actually been hanging around for awhile. Really beautiful and heartfelt.

I hope you post more often.

Kicked and recommended.

[Garbo 2004]

8. Thank you for posting, K & R. n/t

[liberalmuse]

9. Awesome post.!

You just don't send people into this type of situation as lightly as Bush did. I don't even think he comprehends it, or cares about the mass misery he's caused by his and his administrations actions. It's utterly inexcusable and unforgivable. I wish more Americans were like yourself--who even cared or had the ability to imagine how they would feel if it were them. I'm so very angry at the people who should have known better, and especially those who are still supporting this atrocity and who haven't even taken 5 seconds to contemplate the human factor. War is like a game they must win. They are the ones contemptuous of our troops. Good Christ, and what we've done to the Iraqi people, our troops and their families--there are no words.

[SammyWinstonJack]

27. He doesn't comprehend it and most important, he doesn't care.

That should piss ALL Americans off.

[Colorado Progressive]

10. Thanks for post

:cry:

[burrowowl]

11. Welcome to DU!

K&R

[Tinksrival]

12. Today was definitely one of those days.....

were I just stopped and cried.

[Usrename]

13. Welcome to the fight.

Carry what load you can, and no more.

I see you've been here a while, but you have only just begun to fight! Cool!

[Ghost in the Machine]

14. Have you seen Ava"s video? This is a must see!

http://www.peacetakescourage.com/bringemonhome.wmv (Windows Media Player)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6Ykjdc3EKYE (YouTube)


If you haven't seen this video, you owe it to yourself to watch it...


Peace!

Ghost

[lligrd]

15. Beautiful Post. nt

[roody]

16. See you in D.C!

[Greyhound]

17. Welcome to the world.

Keep these feelings close to your heart and remember them every day.

"The strong go crazy, the weak go along"

[RevolutionStartsNow]

18. Juan_de_la_Dem...

that was beautifully written, and heart-wrenching.

About 3 years ago I also came across a fatal accident just after it happened, quite close to my house. I've seen a lot of car accidents over the years but this one was particularly disturbing, as I clearly saw the victim slumped partially out of the car, and only one lone police car on the scene. It's the closest I've ever come face-to-face with violent death, and it had a profound effect on me.

I didn't make the connection that you did, but I can certainly understand how you got from A to B and then to outrage and the urge to act. The reality of this war hits me from time to time, usually when I am alone with my thoughts in my car, and I find myself crying or just screaming in frustration. It's so easy to go through the tasks of my daily life, having periodic (actually frequent) intellectual conversations with others about the disaster that is this war and this adminstration, but every once in awhile it REALLY hits me, in the heart and the gut rather than just the brain.

Thanks for your post, and the reminder that we MUST keep fighting, in any way we can, to end this war.

[ms liberty]

19. K&R - moving, touching, and heartfelt. Thanks for posting this, and Welcome to DU. n/t

[malaise]

20. Lovely post

K& R

[Highway61]

21. Excellent! K & R n/t

[blondie58]

22. well, for being a "shadow Du'er", you've certainly come in with a bang!

thank you for such an eloquent and meaningful post.

We have to appreciate each day in front of us, it is a gift.

and welcome to DU, my fellow Coloradoan!

[ceile]

23. Welcome to DU!

Beautifully written. K&R

[sinkingfeeling]

24. Excellent post! I've thought daily of the live in Iraq for over 4 years; I cry at

night; I rant and rave; I curse those in this administration; and I wonder how the gods have let us fall from grace so rapidly.

[yardwork]

25. Thank you.

[closeupready]

26. Excellent post - I totally agree.

and also, think about the soldiers there who see it up close and personal every day. Without support and help, they are going to be just totally destroyed when it's over and they come home.

[iamahaingttta]

28. There is an ulterior motive.

Thank you for this cogent post. It expresses what many are feeling, but unable to say.

And you are right. There is an ulterior motive. The planet is overpopulated. The motive is to reduce the population on the planet as much as possible without changing too much of the existing, corporate order. And to do it in such a way that it is profitable. It's the NeoCON's project, and the Dems are complicit in it because they know that 1- it will benefit them too, 2- they don't have a plan to deal with overpopulation, so let the killers get the job done and bitch about it the whole time without actually trying to stop it.

History is the study of the growth and destruction cycles of human activity. What we are living through now has been going on for thousands of years. It is our generation's turn to experience it. Until we come up with another mode for living, not based on constant growth and reduction, these cycles will continue. What would that mode of living look like?

See you in D.C.

[porphyrian]

29. Good morning. - n/t

[Grandrose]

30. K&R

Excellent and moving! I think more Americans would feel the pain, MSM and Bush/Cheney cabal has cleansed the carnage from view. No pictures from Dover and few from Iraq, but for the internet, would the suffering be exposed.:cry:

[Shine]

31. Great post, Juan.

:thumbsup:
thanks for doing your part.

Welcome to DU! :toast:

[TomInTib]

This is definitely one of the best posts I have ever seen here.

I just turned on my computer and this is the first thing I have read.

Somehow, my day is going to be a lot different than originally planned.

Somehow, I am going to make a difference, some kind of impact.

Today.

Starting right now.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[Jacobin]

46. Dude. Keep the commercials off this thread please

Thank you.


(for those who take things literally, i know i know)

[emmadoggy]

33. Very evocative post. Nice job. K & R. (nt)

:thumbsup:

[babylonsister]

34. Wow, wonderful post. We need more people thinking like you do. nt

[ReadTomPaine]

35. Brilliant and beautiful. K&R

See you in DC.

:thumbs up:

[warren pease]

36. I'm really glad I took the time to read this...

And thank you so much, Juan, for taking the time to write it. Please post your thoughts more often; I so rarely feel positive about anything these days, but your call to action makes so much sense and is so undeniably true that I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't look around and see where I could make a small dent in the armor of this broken system this very afternoon.

Back to the keyboard later; a little citizen activism now.


Best,

wp

[Gamey]

37. The lack of a conspiracy is itself a theory...

Juan, thanks for the great post.

[puebloknot]

38. K&R Beautifully said. Keep writing against tyranny! nt

[barbtries]

39. a touching post, very

suddenly i'm thinking. my son and i might be moving to NC about that time: why not TIME it for 9-15-07, and detour to DC for the 15th?

believe me if you make it out there, and if i make it out there, it will be a demonstration like nobody has seen in the US for maybe ever. because until i read your post i already knew that for me to get all the way to DC was utterly impossible.

chime in more often...

edited to get my washingtons straight

[ejbr]

40. Excellent, simply excellent.

You are right. Talk is cheap, particularly when our letters to the editors and emails to Congress and news sites seem to get no results. Those of us who are disgusted with the state of our country are in the majority, but are ignored. It is time to do everything we can to not only make our presence abundently clear, but to also wake up those fellow citizens who are still believing the hype.

[rateyes]

41. Most excellent...

:kick: and recommended.

[OwnedByFerrets]

42. K & R

[NanceGreggs]

43. Beautifully and passionately written ...

:kick: and REC'D!

:patriot:

[Breeze54]

53. self delete

Posted in the wrong place.

[Flabbergasted]

44. Excellent KR

[ecstatic]

45. So, will you support a candidate who supported the IWR?

This is what I'm struggling with. The horrors of what's going on in Iraq already occured to me and now I'm trying to figure out if I should now turn around and vote for someone who possibly enabled this quagmire/genocide.

[jojog]

47. Down here in Selmer Tenn we have been in the national news

For a drag racer that left the road and killed 6 people and injured dozens and the preacher's wife who shot her husband.
The pain and despair in this small town is great, but every day the solders and civilains that are killed in Iraq is many times greater.

[Mz Pip]

48. Excellent post

It's very easy to distance oneself from the realities of war; after over 4 years so much of the rhetoric has become almost background noise. But facing the randomess of death up close like you did can make it so much more up close and personal.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[SalviaBlue]

49. "There but for the grace of God go I..."

I am not a religous person but this what I think when I see someone in trouble or hurt. I just don't think most republicans think this way... they think "better him than me."

Great post. Thanks.

[intaglio]

50. K&R n/t

[cadaverdog]

51. K&R

I was against the war before the invasion, but I really got angry when I heard that after giving the order to unleash "Shock and Awe," George and Laura had a quiet dinner and went to bed. Sweet.

How in the name of all that's holy do you do you simply "turn in" without even viewing the hell that you have rained on those poor people?

That was the end of any sympathy I may have had for Bush following 911.

[KalicoKitty]

52. Excellent post!

:kick:

[cascadiance]

54. I'm hoping to make it on September too! I was hit hard yesterday too!

Fortunately I was spared the agony of losing one of my closest friends in life, but for the time yesterday it was in question, the reality of what vet's families must be going through hit me personally too. Seeing my bills afterward also had the effect of me seeing the double-whammy that people are getting and why it MUST stop!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1591399&mesg_id=1591399

[Breeze54]

55. Your words brought tears to my eyes...

I hope you do abandon that coffee shop, for a short time and join us in DC!

I don't want to look back either, in the years ahead, and wonder what I could've

done but didn't try to change about this moral free fall our country has been on.


:kick: & Recommended!

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[tom_paine]

56. Welcome to DU, Juan_de_la_Dem!

:toast: :toast:

Step out of the shadows, my friend, and join the fight for Liberty! :patriot:

You are most welcome and your original post here is moving, indeed.

[Maestro]

57. Easily recommended.

The people that shield themselves from this war and its human tragedy are closing a blind eye to it all. I feel for the families affected by what you saw, but at least you have the compassion and intelligence to realize what a tragedy war is and how nothing good ever comes from it. Just as 9-11 was a horrible, just as the extreme fundamentalists in the form of the Taliban in Afghanistan are horrible so are we in Iraq.

[livvy]

58. Very nice...Thank you, even though you made me get weepy, too.

I do hope you can come to DC. It is a great experience, and there are people of all ages, from babies in backpack carriers to very senior citizens.
It will be my 4th trip in the last few years, and I've met some really wonderful DU people at the marches and in the meet-ups arranged the evenings before the marches.
I hope you can join us. It would be a pleasure to meet you.

[Olney Blue]

59. K and R.

Thank you, Juan.

[femrap]

60. I hope you make it to DC

on the 15th. There should be a DU contingent.