April 16th marked four years since the original diagnosis of Jacob's brain tumor and the third anniversary of another friend from Packard, Michael's, funeral. April should have also seen our friends Ben's tenth and Courtney's twenty seventh birthday.
So I have been thinking a lot about children in peril, not just the children themselves, but about what it does to their parents, their families, everyone who is caught up in it.
And I have been thinking about the war in Iraq, and the terrible toll it is taking on children. I feel an awful kinship with the mothers and fathers whose children are there. Iraqi or American, it doesn't matter.
Today there was a horrifying, heartbreaking article in the New York Times by ALISSA J. RUBIN that starts out:
Missiles Strike Sadr City, Damaging Hospital
BAGHDAD — The ugly daily fight for ground in the poor Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City unfolded Saturday at a small mosque next door to a hospital, damaging the hospital and a number of its ambulances, and near a group of children who were wounded as they gathered tin cans to sell for salvage.
The missiles that hit close to the Sadr General Hospital were American. After a night of clashes in the neighborhood, the Americans fired at least three “precision-guided munitions” at the small building next door to the hospital. Neighbors said the building was used as a place of prayer for pilgrims, hospital employees and neighborhood residents, but the military identified it as a command center for the Shiite militias that it is battling.
Last week we saw American Joe, a wrenching and beautiful original play by Liza Raynal, about her brother's coming deployment to Iraq.
Afterward all I could do was hold onto Liza's mother and cry. We have got to do something to stop this. WE HAVE TO STOP THIS.
Meanwhile, our country is not taking care of the soldiers we are sending to war. One small act we can do is support those who are suffering from the aftereffects of war, just as Jacob is suffering the after effects of cancer treatment.
Click the link below to sign a petition to support IAVA and Drowning Pool’s “This is For the Soldiers” campaign to make sure the mental health needs of our troops are a top priority.
