We should know more than just their names

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July 27, 2010

Our opinion The Moultrie Observer The Moultrie Observer Tue Jul 27, 2010, 12:13 AM EDT

| — Today’s column on this page by Connie Schultz should make us all stop for a minute and consider the essence of that commentary. It’s about putting faces and names on the war dead.

Indeed, they have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom, mostly in foreign countries, where our involvement often is at question.

The essence of that column is that our soldiers should be much more to us than just a list of names. The Bush administration made if very difficult for the public to even see the flag draped coffins that were returned from Iraq. What a shame! There should have been large gatherings there to pay their respects.

Some newspapers, in defiance of the administration’s cruel strategy, did publish names.

Each soldier returned in a body bag was special to someone. He or she had brothers and sisters, mamas and daddies and many of them had children.

And each one deserves a story of some kind. Did they like baseball? What kind of music did they like? What was their favorite food and when did they last partake of it? How did they feel about American politics these days? Where did they stand on the environment?

Given that we now have an all- voluntary military, there is some distance between the average man on the street and the names and faces of those soldiers. We all should have ownership in our wars. By ownership, we should be closer to the fray in that we be totally aware of the carnage, the physical costs, the rehab costs and yes, maybe we should make some effort to learn something about those men and women who put it all on the line for our principles.

By the way, let’s keep their sacrifices in mind as we approach the November elections. Locally we had a pathetic turnout in the primary. Please note that those soldiers we talk about here were trying to expand democracy according to those who send them there. It’s a shame not to respect the very concepts for which they gave their lives.

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