my first real Memorial Day

Maybe it's because we have HDTV cable and we watch alot of high def PBS lately.
Maybe it was watching Fog of War on Friday.
Maybe it's because I've fallen in love with National Public Radio.
Maybe it's because I'm more against the war in Iraq than ever.

But this Memorial Day really hit me. The deep sadness of so many soliders dying so that I could sit and watch TV and listen to the radio and publicly oppose a war, without fear and oppression.
I teared up more than once today thinking about it.
They were all someone's son or brother or father, and now they're daughters, sisters and mothers too. You hear that said all the time. But gosh, think of it, everyday people getting torn up like an R movie, not because they deserved it, but because they believed it was right.
Pat Tillman got so much attention for giving up his status and money to die for America but it pains me more to think of all the soliders that had nothing and the Army was their only hope at a better life. But it killed them.

(I know I'm an artist when my first answer to that conviction is to make a really good wreath.)