Since last November like many people, I've been processing through a lot of what our country is about and what we stand for and searching for truth. What is true about what I believe and what is not? Today is the day that we remember and honor, with broken hearts, those who died in service to our country. From the Revolutionary War to today's War on Terror, we have sacrificed the human treasure in our country for what we aver is a higher ideal - the fight for and the preservation of freedom.
This sacrifice means there are babies who will never know their fathers, children who will grow up without a mother or a father, and parents who will ache with the loss of their sons and daughters for the remainder of their own lives. This sacrifice means thousands of men and women won't be there to raise their children or care for their elderly parents. This sacrifice means that the men and women who gave up their lives will no longer contribute to our greater society. They won't cure cancer, they won't come up with a solution to climate change, they won't solve the next economic crisis, they won't teach in our schools or police our streets or run for elected office. Many of them have been cut down too young to have had a chance to leave a mark in this world other than the sacrifice of their life in a war.
In the last Harry Potter book, Dumbledore tells Harry,
"Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living and, above all, those who live without love. By returning, you may ensure that fewer souls are maimed, fewer families are torn apart. If that seems to you a worthy goal, then we say good-bye for the present."
The older I get the more I feel the loss of this treasure and the toll it takes on all of us. Not just the sudden loss of a life, but the fact that we're honoring men and women who died because of a failure on the part of the living. War is the worst of human nature and we are way too eager to engage in it. We're not just asking for the sacrifice of your life, we're asking you to take lives as well. We're asking you to take part in something that kills the human soul. Perhaps we have no choice but to go to war, but we should never forget the totality of the cost to one and all.
The United States has been at war for nearly my entire lifetime. I was born in 1965 and a quick query on the internet reveals that we've lost more than 66,000 US Soldiers since then. The bulk of those deaths occurred in Vietnam, but the numbers for Iraq and Afghanistan are each already in the thousands. We no longer see the black bags lined up on the tarmac awaiting the last ride home with the bodies of our lost treasure resting silently inside. The American public doesn't actually like war and we don't like the consequences of war and so our government hides from us the awful truth and instead glorifies the battle and the pageantry and our weaponry. We see the soldier standing with the weapon heading in to battle, not lying torn to shreds on the ground, limbs missing and covered in blood in the aftermath.
It's not just soldiers who give up their lives in war, but civilians as well and yet we rarely if ever acknowledge their sacrifice as anything other than acceptable losses. The numbers of civilian casualties may number equally or higher to the number of soldiers lost, but their number also includes children from infants to teenagers. They will never grow up to become educated adults, have children of their own or provide solutions to finding peace in our time. They are the world's lost treasure. In recent years the United States has bombed a hospital in Afghanistan, slaughtered a wedding party in Yemen and killed an 8 year old girl in a drone strike.
We also ask for the sacrifice of the planet we live on. We have allowed poisonous chemicals like Agent Orange to rain down on our soldiers, on the local populace and on the land they occupy impacting generations to come, not to mention what we do to the wildlife. Soldiers bond with domestic animals (both dogs and cats) while they're serving their country and some try to bring them home and some leave those animals to fend for themselves once they're gone.
Nothing and no one is safe in the theater of war. Yet we sing songs about going off to war to kick some butt as if at the end we'll all just come back to the bar for a cold one and have a laugh. War is death. There is nothing to celebrate about war except when it ends and we can begin to pick up the pieces of our lives.
So on this Memorial Day we should gather and quietly honor those who have been lost to war, and we should remember not just the soldier, but all of the losses embodied therein and wonder what our future might have been if only.....Then we should demand to know why some wars are still being fought these many years later and how much more earthly treasure we can stand to lose.
Monday, May 29, 2017
Saturday, May 27, 2017
Weekend Rambling Thoughts
It's Saturday morning and my sister and her family will be hopping in their mini-van shortly with both their dogs and heading south to Maryland. I should be finishing up laundry and making beds to get ready for them, but I'm not. I'm engaging in what my sister and I refer to as 'self-sabotage'. You may remember it from your college days when you were working on a term paper. You can find all kinds of things to do and become thoroughly engrossed in but that. I recall someone asking how long it takes to write a term paper and the answer was, how long have I got?
I really need to walk my dog and then get on my bike for an hour. I have a trip coming up in June where I'll be on a bike a lot and I'm not sure my legs or my behind are up for the job. I managed to self-sabotage my plans for daily bike riding over the past few months with excuses like it's too cold, or it's too wet when in reality I just couldn't focus on the task at hand. Although, it was pouring buckets on Thursday morning and it was chilly so I'm going to say not going was legit.
Part of my problem is my laptop and all the social applications I just can't get enough of. I keep saying I'm going to break myself of my Facebook and Twitter habits but I can't. They're a total time suck. I also bought myself an Apple TV for the living room and my bedroom and I love surfing all my options. I love a good binge watch.
Also, much to my dismay, my heat pump/air conditioner decided this was a good time to say goodbye to the world. I worked from home yesterday while the new system was installed, but it meant I couldn't get to the laundry! Very convenient excuse. My laundry area in my basement has been on my 'to do' list for a while and so last weekend I had started to get it organized. When I first start I actually make more of a mess before the actual clean up starts. I need to create piles to figure out what needs to be trashed, recycled, given away, etc.,. Anyway of course the indoor unit is right there by the laundry area. I had to make sure the guys had room to work which meant moving some trash bags and stacking stuff on top of the washer and dryer, and then just staying out of their way.
Anyway, here I am writing a blog post when I haven't had the need to write about anything in a long time and suddenly this morning, with laundry looming and all the other things I need to get done, I'm blogging. Of course!! That's how self-sabotage works.
I have a lot of things I want to write about but one of them is just too taxing (Trump). I don't know about a lot of you, but I'm exhausted trying to keep up with the shenanigans of the current administration. I really need this long weekend of rest to think about nothing and just enjoy family.
My Dad turns 80 on Sunday and we're all gathering at my parents' house for a milestone celebration. Both my parents are doing really well and it will be a fun celebration. Hopefully we won't talk politics, not because we disagree but because it's just too depressing.
On Monday I'll be in a good frame of mind for the Memorial Day holiday. One thing that might help my motivation before then though is for the sun to come out. I don't know about you, but I've had enough of this gloomy weather to last a lifetime.
I think I just heard the buzzer on the dryer so I'll sign off and wish everyone a very nice holiday weekend.
I really need to walk my dog and then get on my bike for an hour. I have a trip coming up in June where I'll be on a bike a lot and I'm not sure my legs or my behind are up for the job. I managed to self-sabotage my plans for daily bike riding over the past few months with excuses like it's too cold, or it's too wet when in reality I just couldn't focus on the task at hand. Although, it was pouring buckets on Thursday morning and it was chilly so I'm going to say not going was legit.
Part of my problem is my laptop and all the social applications I just can't get enough of. I keep saying I'm going to break myself of my Facebook and Twitter habits but I can't. They're a total time suck. I also bought myself an Apple TV for the living room and my bedroom and I love surfing all my options. I love a good binge watch.
Also, much to my dismay, my heat pump/air conditioner decided this was a good time to say goodbye to the world. I worked from home yesterday while the new system was installed, but it meant I couldn't get to the laundry! Very convenient excuse. My laundry area in my basement has been on my 'to do' list for a while and so last weekend I had started to get it organized. When I first start I actually make more of a mess before the actual clean up starts. I need to create piles to figure out what needs to be trashed, recycled, given away, etc.,. Anyway of course the indoor unit is right there by the laundry area. I had to make sure the guys had room to work which meant moving some trash bags and stacking stuff on top of the washer and dryer, and then just staying out of their way.
Anyway, here I am writing a blog post when I haven't had the need to write about anything in a long time and suddenly this morning, with laundry looming and all the other things I need to get done, I'm blogging. Of course!! That's how self-sabotage works.
I have a lot of things I want to write about but one of them is just too taxing (Trump). I don't know about a lot of you, but I'm exhausted trying to keep up with the shenanigans of the current administration. I really need this long weekend of rest to think about nothing and just enjoy family.
My Dad turns 80 on Sunday and we're all gathering at my parents' house for a milestone celebration. Both my parents are doing really well and it will be a fun celebration. Hopefully we won't talk politics, not because we disagree but because it's just too depressing.
On Monday I'll be in a good frame of mind for the Memorial Day holiday. One thing that might help my motivation before then though is for the sun to come out. I don't know about you, but I've had enough of this gloomy weather to last a lifetime.
I think I just heard the buzzer on the dryer so I'll sign off and wish everyone a very nice holiday weekend.
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Love Is All Around
A little more than two years ago the rescue I volunteer with gave me a foster dog that had been rescued from a homeless situation. A woman was living in her car with two dogs and was having a very hard time of it. Izzy, the dog that came to me, had serious mange that was very expensive to treat and I believe her car mate did as well. I'm not sure who convinced the woman to turn the dogs over to a rescue, but she did, they were treated for their health issues, and both found wonderful new homes where they're thriving. When the woman was back on her feet again she inquired about getting her dogs back. Unfortunately, that's not how it works.
At the time I thought that giving up those two dogs was a great sacrifice but that the dogs would be better for it. Or would they? She certainly wouldn't. I know what the loss of a dog feels like after they've lived a long and full life with you, and I can't imagine the heartbreak of giving them up while they're alive because you can't care for them. Also, the attachment between dogs and their humans is two ways - we love them and they love us back. Who hasn't seen the pictures of dogs dumped at a shelter, head bowed and staring in to the corner, crying and wondering what is happening and not knowing where their beloved human has gone? Or the story of a dog chasing after a car that's just dumped it on a highway? My own dog follows me around the house when we're home together and wants to be in the same room as me. He can be off leash in safe spaces because he and I are a pack and he stays with me - I jokingly say we're a bonded pair. He loves me and I love him.
When I'm near kids who are interacting with my dogs I always make sure to share with them that dogs love. "Did you know that dogs feel love the same way that people do?" I'll ask the kids. They start to ask questions as they pet the dog, "Do you think your dog loves me?" and my response is "Yes, I think he does. Look at his tail wagging." Especially when I have a foster and the kids want to know why I'm not keeping the newest resident of our neighborhood, "Doesn't he love you?" and I say, "Well yes, I think he does, but he knows that we're working very hard to find him a family of his very own and he'll love them too."
Which brings me back to my original question, should homeless people give up their pets? There are plenty of people living on the streets alongside their pets and in a harsh world where there's little hope and little joy in every day existence, perhaps these pets make a real and positive difference. At least that's what Glenn Greenwald and his husband David Miranda believe. I listened to Glenn on DemocracyNow! talk about creating an animal shelter in Rio de Janeiro that will hire homeless people who love dogs to work there and I read his article about it in the online newspaper he founded, The Intercept. The people they hire will live and work at the shelter with their own pets while working to find homes for the many homeless dogs living in that city. They're hoping this shelter will become a model that can be replicated in cities around the world. I hope they're right. This morning I went to their GoFundMe page and made a $100 donation in support of this effort.
We're living in an incredibly chaotic world right now. Within all this insanity here is an opportunity for something real that can make a difference in many lives, both human and animal. I believe that like the song says, the love you take is equal to the love you make. Click on the links I've embedded throughout this post to hear and read about all of this first hand. We're one week away from remembering those who sacrificed their lives for war, and what better way to remember them but by building up the people and animals for whom they made that sacrifice.
 |
| Izzy |
At the time I thought that giving up those two dogs was a great sacrifice but that the dogs would be better for it. Or would they? She certainly wouldn't. I know what the loss of a dog feels like after they've lived a long and full life with you, and I can't imagine the heartbreak of giving them up while they're alive because you can't care for them. Also, the attachment between dogs and their humans is two ways - we love them and they love us back. Who hasn't seen the pictures of dogs dumped at a shelter, head bowed and staring in to the corner, crying and wondering what is happening and not knowing where their beloved human has gone? Or the story of a dog chasing after a car that's just dumped it on a highway? My own dog follows me around the house when we're home together and wants to be in the same room as me. He can be off leash in safe spaces because he and I are a pack and he stays with me - I jokingly say we're a bonded pair. He loves me and I love him.
When I'm near kids who are interacting with my dogs I always make sure to share with them that dogs love. "Did you know that dogs feel love the same way that people do?" I'll ask the kids. They start to ask questions as they pet the dog, "Do you think your dog loves me?" and my response is "Yes, I think he does. Look at his tail wagging." Especially when I have a foster and the kids want to know why I'm not keeping the newest resident of our neighborhood, "Doesn't he love you?" and I say, "Well yes, I think he does, but he knows that we're working very hard to find him a family of his very own and he'll love them too."
Which brings me back to my original question, should homeless people give up their pets? There are plenty of people living on the streets alongside their pets and in a harsh world where there's little hope and little joy in every day existence, perhaps these pets make a real and positive difference. At least that's what Glenn Greenwald and his husband David Miranda believe. I listened to Glenn on DemocracyNow! talk about creating an animal shelter in Rio de Janeiro that will hire homeless people who love dogs to work there and I read his article about it in the online newspaper he founded, The Intercept. The people they hire will live and work at the shelter with their own pets while working to find homes for the many homeless dogs living in that city. They're hoping this shelter will become a model that can be replicated in cities around the world. I hope they're right. This morning I went to their GoFundMe page and made a $100 donation in support of this effort.
We're living in an incredibly chaotic world right now. Within all this insanity here is an opportunity for something real that can make a difference in many lives, both human and animal. I believe that like the song says, the love you take is equal to the love you make. Click on the links I've embedded throughout this post to hear and read about all of this first hand. We're one week away from remembering those who sacrificed their lives for war, and what better way to remember them but by building up the people and animals for whom they made that sacrifice.
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