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August 29, 2004

Here; Have a Coronary

This weekend, my father pulled up to our driveway in a brand-spankin' new car, complete with a dashboard navigation system, a Hemi-powered engine, and automatic everything else. On its maiden voyage, we drove the car to Toledo, so that the five of us would break it in on our way to my cousin's wedding ceremony. After watching the couple say their vows in front of a crowd of at least three hundred people, we piled back into the car, smiling and satiated with comfort.

Pulling back into the driveway, and rearranging the fleet of cars that surrounds our house (this brings the total count to five now), we pulled suitcases, bags, and travel cases out of the trunk, and sat them in the house. It wasn't until after my father pulled his new possession into the garage that my mother pulled him aside to tell him that his nephew had been bombed by an army missile, and is now paralyzed from the waist down.

Funny how the bad things can totally overshadow the good parts of a weekend, isn't it?

As much as I know how unpopular this is going to sound, I've got be honest when I say that I pretty much have little admiration for the armed forces. Respect them? Yes. Those people are out there risking life and limb so that the rest of us can sit cozy in our living rooms, eating chicken pot pies with a helping of this season's installment of "The Apprentice." How can you not respect that? I just don't understand how anyone can sit and glorify the army and war itself, as if it's supposed to be this glamorous life where no one ever gets hurt. I don't agree with half the reasons we're occupying Iraq, and why it's so necessary to (maybe, possibly, someday) institute another national draft.

If that draft becomes reality, my brother will most likely be one of the unfortunate people to be sent over there, dodging bullets, and hoping not to get pelted in friendly fire. It's bad enough my cousin went back to the recruiting center a second time after he was discharged, just so he could support his family. He's got a wife and a kid to provide for, and the army was his way out. But what did he get? A missile in the leg. Don't get me wrong, but a Purple Heart isn't enough to compensate for becoming an overnight quadrapeligic.

I'm scared for my cousin, and for my brother, who might end up serving a prison sentence for dodging the draft, if there ever is one. He's got chronic heart disease, which doesn't make him the Army's first choice, but that still doesn't make me any less worried. I asked him about maybe becoming a Canadian citizen, or maybe even claiming religious immunity, but he's not so sure that'd work... There's got to be something though... Right?

Why is it fair for someone to have to fight for a war he doesn't believe in?

posted at 8:43 p.m.

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