Who Really Cares?

Yesterday's heat, with temperatures in the 90's and with the humidity almost as high, drove many people to various areas to try to find some relief. Some stayed indoors in the comfort of their airconditioned room or house while others sought relief by going to the numerous beaches available to the residents of eastern Massachusetts.

As a I sat drinking a light beer having lunch, I couldn't help but think of my oldest son who is away at Camp Drum, New York along with many other National Guardsmen on their annual 2 week excursion. I wondered how they were coping with this oppressive heat and humidity. I don't think they were practising their manuevers or whatever they do in shorts and t-shirts. I also thought how this was perfect weather to acclimate them to what our soldiers are dealing with every single day in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Later that day as I sat having my supper, the lead story on all the local news channels had to do with the heat. Interestingly they showed people at the beach and then they showed and interviewed people who were working with 350 degree coal tar who were hard topping a street. They also interviewed an AC repairman who said that he was having a hard time keeping up with service requests from people who's AC was not functioning. He said some people were quite upset when he could not get to them promptly. I started to choke on my shish-kabob - God forbid that they have to be inconvienced for a day.

Maybe if we were forced to ration some of our commodities to help pay for the war on terror we would have our priorities where they should be. Many people in this country are SPOILED. Too bad you have to be inconvienenced and sweat a little for a day. Sweat is a good bodily function to keep your skin cool and to clean out your stinking pores. What about that poor 19 year old just out of high school who is crawling on his stomach in the desert in 110 degree heat carrying at least 70 lbs. on his back so you can complain about the AC going down, who is he complaining to? He's not. And he is not inconvenienced just for one day. If he's lucky he'll make it back in one piece in a year from now.

I believe that there sould be a law stating that in the event of a declaration of war every family should sacrifice one member whether it be in combat or some other type of service. Why should the people of Wellesley and Dover and Weston and Lynnfield or for that matter any affluent area be excluded from service?

News of loss of life shouldn't become ho-hum because we're bored by hearing the same thing over and over again for two years. As a reminder, here's some of the stuff that's going on over there as written in today's Washington Post. If you want to continue to live in la-la land don't go any further.

U.S. troops, hoping to show their good intentions and win popular support, and mindful that boys among those Hamza's age will grow up to be the insurgents or soldiers of the next few years, often hand out candy bought from local stores or saved from meals-ready-to-eat ration packets while on noncombat patrols.

For the U.S. soldiers, Iraqi children often provide the relief of welcoming faces in a strange country of suspicious, wary looks. For soldiers with families at home, the children also are a reminder of their own.

Iraqi children "always surround them, laugh, imitate the way they walk, go like this with them," Khuzai remembered, giving a thumbs-up as he and his family and other mourners gathered in the front room.

About 10 a.m. last Wednesday, a suicide bomber drove his brown Suzuki sedan and its load of explosives into the crowd of American soldiers and Iraqi children clustered around the Humvees, residents said. Twenty-six of al-Khalij's children died. The bomb killed boys old enough to play out in al-Khalij's streets and young enough to still want to. One U.S. soldier was killed and at least three others were wounded, the military said.

In a 110-degree-plus summer in Baghdad, with wartime water and electricity shortages, gas lines again stretching from the pumps through neighborhoods and across the spans of highway overpasses, kidnappings, killings and bombings, and a government struggling to secure the country, the killing of 26 children quickly became al-Khalij's tragedy alone.

Hamza's father reflected on the silence, and recalled the July 7 bombings in London, which killed at least 56 people, including the bombers. "What happened in England drew condemnation from all the presidents and kings of the world. But when all our children here are gone, not even an Arab leader says a word," Khuzai lamented Monday. In the neighborhood, black funeral banners hung on front gates, sometimes two or more, for each dead child within.

I say to the person complaining about their AC, maybe you would like to trade places with Khuzai. He's got every right to lament and NO ONE cares, 'not even an Arab leader says a word.' I think most of our service men care, but they get blamed because they are there. I know that most would rather be here suffering with a few days of sweltering heat.