Monica Benderman: "For Cindy: There is no Glory in Dying"

[GreenPartyVoter]

(Monica Benderman is the wife of Sgt. Kevin Benderman who was recently sentenced to 15 months confinement for the charge of Missing Movement. Amnesty International has issued an urgent appeal for Kevin’s immediate release, and declared him a Prisoner of Conscience. For more information and updates please visit their website, http://www.BendermanDefense.org )

<snip>

Cindy Sheehan and Kevin Benderman are no different, just using a different story to help others see how much we need to reach for a better way. War should be obsolete; it must be, if we are to regain our humanity. We should not have to watch our soldiers load their weapons and prepare to fight others. Sadly, no one can truly understand who has not seen or felt the entire experience. We hope the day will come when no one ever will feel it again. For those of us who have, we look at the sunshine a little longer and dare to walk in the rain. We see our children as gifts, not nuisances. We wake in the morning and do our best to defend good things and brush off the little ones that don’t really matter. We accept what we have as the gifts we must use. We do not take for granted that by being here, speaking out to no longer participate in war, to find a better way, we are fighting for freedom and the right to live, as we believe. We remember that we are not fighting for the right to destroy others or ourselves for the sake of power and control. We do not forget what good is – all the natural gifts we have to share that have nothing to do with money or power or instant gratification. We do not forget the honor in being able to defend Life over the taking of life to solve our problems.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0818-24.htm

[Bluerthanblue]

1. "No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons...

... for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology.
and guess who made that statement???????

Ronald Reagan !!!!

i was reading 'Elegy In A Country Churchyard" yesterday- and several lines jumped out at me... especially this one-

"The Paths of glory lead but to the grave"
Dying a 'hero' offers no real relief from the grief and loss does it? Are a mothers arms any 'less' empty?? Is the loss of life any 'less' devestating? If 'staying the course' costs another several hundred deaths, what can 'we' truly hope to accomplish?? We cannot FORCE a nation to 'be free'- And we cannot "protect" the Iraqi people from themselves. We have pulled their rotting house down around them- and we can't 'save' them from the ramifications of that.

The soldiers who have given their lives, did so with HONOR- because, they UNLIKE their 'leader' kept their word, and faced the responsibilities they had signed on for. But that doesn't make the sad reality that this same 'leader' squandered the 'trust' and 'value' of so many precious lives.

BECAUSE we 'support the troops' we want them home- NOW, not in a box, not leaving behind any more body parts, or peices of their souls, but as 'whole' and 'intact' and 'alive' as possible.

My compassion for the Iraqi people is not absent. But we cannot save ourselves, much less them. May they live to forgive us for our stupidity, and arrogance. May they find a place of peace and stability that belongs to THEM.

i'm so, so sad. for this whole world.

A monster was unleashed in America- not on 9/11- But when bush was declared the 'winner' in december of 2000.

There is no glory in death. i Honor, and respect our fellow men and women, but i scream at the injustice of their premature and un-necessiary demise.

Guess this is nothing new:

The martyr sacrifices themselves entirely in vain. Or rather not in vain; for they make the selfish more selfish, the lazy more lazy, the narrow narrower.
Florence Nightingale

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Another way ** falls short of his mentor, eh? I too, am so sad for the

world. And I am furious at the perpetrators of injustice.