In Memoriam

In addition to those who died in the Revolution, or 1812, this post is for
the ur-uncle who died of dysentery in camp in Maryland after being drafted into the Civil War, leaving behind a wife and an infant daughter...
for Special Ed, who went crazy in Korea and finally bought the farm after working as a chaplain after 9/11, taking his own life in an apartment in Brooklyn,
this is for my uncle Richard who got malaria in the Phillipines, in WWII, suffered from depression ever after, and walked into a commuter train on his way home from work,
or here's to another great Uncle who killed my great Aunt, the suffragette, in Jersey City, the man who suffered horrible jealosy after he got a plate in his head in The Great War,leaving his children motherless,
or for guys who came back from WWII and then drank themselves to death,
or for the guys in wheelchairs who live in the VA hospital, , the ones I've sung to with the Al Jolsen Society, who can't quite remember who Al Jolsen was,
For those Working Class HEROS and HEROINES, who hold down the Fort while the rich guys in DC move the troops around like so many chess pieces,
for my cousin, the Navy nurse in Bethesda Naval Hospital, on call this weekend, dressing burn victims,
to the Jarheads out in the desert, breathing Iraqi dust, who are honestly trying to win Iraqi hearts and minds, giving away candy to the little kids,
for the soldiers named Gonzalez or Rodriguez or Jimenez, without citizenship, fighting for the US because they want to be part of, (and will get, if they survive, citizenship, just like my Great Grandfather did, in the Civil War)..
.for the kids who are driving HumVees down RPG Alley,
for the soldiers in Afghanistan sincerely looking for Osama Bin Laden (even though the president has said he doesn't think about him very much) , bless you and keep you. Your aim is true.

The "I" Word - Letter to Chris Matthews (MSNBC Hardball Host)

I sent this letter to Chris Matthews at Christmas...I received no reply from him or any of his staff.. Thank God for patriots like Stephen Colbert, who recently publically criticized the Washington Press Corps, cowardly "journalists" who are too afraid to loose their cush jobs to actually report news...

Dear Mr. Matthews,
There have been rumblings about impeaching George Bush for some time, now. First it was because he ignored CIA, UN, and Pentagon intelligence sources, and chose anyway to invade Iraq, citing "imminent danger". Then it was discovered in the Downing Street Memo that he knew there was no "imminent danger", but was following the blueprint laid out by the Project for the New American Century (published in the late 90's) to invade the Middle East in order to maintain American global domination. Now we find out that the Bush Administration has been using our tax dollars to spy on such "subversive" groups as the Quakers.
Enough.
Unfortunately, MSNBC hasn't done much in the way of discussing impeachment. I understand that because you are an employee of a corporate conglomerate which enjoys tax benefits from this government, and because you are a member of the small percentage of high earners who don't have to pay much tax, you perhaps are discouraged from criticising this administration in any way, shape or form. It is for this reason that I am appealing to your journalistic sense, to report the facts. The Downing Street memo wasn't reported. I have not seen any Quakers being interviewed.
Rep. John Conyers has introduced a bill investigating grounds for impeachment, and several members of the House have signed on. This news needs to be covered. I hope you are willing to step up to the plate.

Sincerely, Joy Whelan

Christian Death

I went to church for the first time in a long time. I was in the local Catholic Church for the funeral of my mom's cousin Jane, who was 90 years old. She had been shoved full of tubes before she died, she had the death pneumonia and they put feeding tubes in her, and performed a tracheotomy...instead of letting her die with dignity...I read a book called "The Way We Die"...and it goes into detail about the body shutting down. We don't seem to respect this process, and fight it, instead...hacking away at the elderly body..I know of two cases of octogenarians dying from colonoscopies..the machines perforate the wall of the colon or intestines, leading to bacterial infections, leading to death...You don't need to be shoving around an old person's behind looking for whatever..I warned Peter's mother, who is 89, don't get a colonoscopy!!