One more time for Mari333: A Mother's Rage

[WilliamPitt]

This was all you, Marianne. You and your fellow DUers making calls, but you and you and you. From this point on, any DUer who even comes close to saying everything is hopeless and we can't win will be automatically put on Ignore. The proof is in the pudding, and the pudding is below.

(For those who haven't followed, Mari333's son was freed from getting dragooned into Iraq service because of the pressure put on by DUers and others. Msri's editorial below got the ball rolling. Carl Levin got on the stick, and he deserves our vast thanks as well)

Today is a good day.

=====

A Mother's Rage
By Marianne Brown
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Tuesday 21 October 2003

http://truthout.org/docs_03/102103C.shtml

I am a mother, 52 years old, and my son is in the National Guard. They won't let him go because the National Guard has put a 'stop-loss' on all Reservists and National Guard troops who are legally supposed to be discharged when their time is up. They might send him overseas on Friday.

I'm mad. Of course I'm mad. I'm a mother.

Let me tell you what being a mother is, if you don't know. It begins with having a child. You are a young girl, (I was only 27), and you give birth...wow....what a birth...my son took 38 hours of hard labor to give birth to. He weighed almost 9 lbs, and he was so beautiful. I don't care how much pain it was now, because he was worth it. He was so cute. He had fat cheeks and a smart little mind. He knew the alphabet by the time he was 14 months old. I taught him. His name is Bobby.

What a little bundle of laughs he was. I tried to teach him compassion, and it worked. He had such a good heart. He brought so many small animals home and asked me to save them. He got in a fight once, when he was five, with a group of small boys who tried to kill a toad. He actually fought for a toad, and wouldn't let anyone hurt it. When Bobby was in high school, he protected a gay kid here from being beaten up in school. I like to think that came from me teaching him, as a kid, always to protect the underdog, always to stand up for what is right.

Bobby grew up and I watched him as a little boy. He was named after his dad, who died in a terrible work accident when Bobby was 11. I pretty much raised him alone. He was taught, by me, to be kind. I did the best I could to raise all three of my boys. I tried to teach them kindness, compassion, and empathy. Maybe I should have taught them something else.

Don't trust the U.S. government.

...more...

[burrowowl]

1. Hoorah!

One Victory at a time and may they build up to a cresendo!

[Andy_Stephenson]

2. We DU have the power

to make a difference. I believe it brother...I really really do!

[WilliamPitt]

3. I will have your statement/interview

by tomorrow morning.

[La_Serpiente]

4. WE WILL STOP THE TYRANNY OF THIS WARMONGER ADMINISTRATION

This administration will be brought down.

[Tatiana]

5. It's a lesson we needed to be reminded of.

We, collectively, DO have the power to make a difference. We all have roles we can play, both large and small, to take back our country from the bastards who now occupy it.

Congrats, Mari and God Bless you :)

[sonias]

6. Never underestimate the power of a Mother's rage

Way to go Marianne! Awesome story and great news about your son being saved. I hope you continue to tell your story and inspire others to save their children as well.

Sonia

[enough]

7. What exactly happened?

How was he freed?

However it was done, can it be done in other cases?

[WilliamPitt]

8. Here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=587620&mesg_id=587620

[JNelson6563]

9. Any DUer who...

any DUer who even comes close to saying everything is hopeless and we can't win will be automatically put on Ignore

Not me. I won't spare them so easily. haha I will slap them and clearly demonstrate to any readers how WRONG, WRONG, WRONG that is!!

Defeatism here will be greeted with reality. The sort of reality that wins battles.

Whiners and defeatists proceed with caution.

Julie

[Mari333]

10. Thank you again all of you

My son just called from the armory he is at today..He is working there stamping dog tags, which is so sad, when I think of all those dog tags that will be on soldiers who are dead in this f*cking illegal war
He also said that his sergeant told him today
"Ya know, if it wasnt for those calls from Levins office, Im not sure we could have kept you from going".
Yes, thats what did it. Thats why every mother every father every family member must fight tooth and nail to save our kids now, to keep them from going, to start Underground Railroads, to scream in protest, to be vigilant and crazy with passion..to bring the troops home now, to be such a pain in the ass to this administration that they cant ignore us
www.mfso.org
www.bringthemhomenow.com
and scream at your Senators and Congresspeople to stop giving Bush blank checks!! The military families are in the march today, I wish I was there..
Thanks again Mr Pitt. and all of you. No words can describe my thanks.

[jumptheshadow]

11. Campaign ads

This story should be part of the television campaign ads Democrats should be running to counter Bush's nasty offensive next year.

Parents will relate to this story. Military families will relate to this story.

By the way, Marianne, your post brought an inspiring new perspective to a tough week. I am so happy for you.

[DinahMoeHum]

12. Mari333, I saw your thread late in the day, keep the pressure on.

Let's keep the pressure on and make DAMN SURE they keep their word regarding the stop-loss situation in January 2004.

:hug:

[ScreamingMeemie]

13. Carl Levin is an amazing man. He is one of the few concientious

politicians out there, and I am thankful for him.

[farmbo]

14. Bravissimo!! Let's do it 150,000 more times!

:toast:

[rbnyc]

15. One more time...

...what we do her translates into the "real" world! We kick ass!

[Tansy_Gold]

16. But. . . . .

. .. . another mother, who doesn't have connections to DU and a Senator, will lose a son or a daughter in Iraq or Afghanistan or somewhere.

One son's life has been bought at the price of another's, not with money the way it used to be done when Abraham Lincoln called men to war. But how different is the fate of this one son from, say, the son of George H. W. Bush, whose daddy had enough pull to get him a cushy spot out of harm's way?

I don't begrudge any mother wanting her son safe. I have a son, and I want him safe, too. I have a son-in-law who served his time in the military, as did my husband, my father, my father-in-law, my uncles, my grandfather, my grandmother, etc.

But let us not lose sight of the fact that it was privilege, DU privilege instead of racial privilege or political privilege, that saved this one son.

Carl Levin didn't order all the troops from Michigan home. And somewhere, some other mother or wife or sister or lover or father or daughter is saying good-bye to a soldier who didn't think he would have to go, but is going because someone else got to stay home.

It's an ugly war, it's a wrong war, it needs to stop NOW. They all need to come home NOW. But let us not lose sight that in this one small victory there is another defeat.

Tansy Gold, still angry, still bitter

[ScreamingMeemie]

17. But one saved equals one not lost...and we can glory in that for

at least a moment...right? :)

[Tansy_Gold]

18. I dunno, Mrs. Grumpy.

I keep thinking about whoever it was that went to Vietnam in whistle-ass's place. Someone wrote an essay about it, semi-fictional, I think. It haunts me.

I'm glad for Marianne, I'm glad for every mother and father and wife and husband and child and lover of a soldier who comes home safe and whole or who doesn't have to go at all. But it bothers me that we lose sight of the fact that DU pulled strings for one young man, and someone else has to go in his place, someone who might not come home.

We can glory in saving one, but that won't stop the tears for another.

[Mari333]

19. My father was in WW2 over Italy as a tailgunner

My great grandfather and gr gr grandfather were in the Civil War and I have their sign up sheets.
I have a history of men in my family at wars, wars that were honourable, wars that meant something, wars that werent fought for large corporations like Halliburton and Bechtel.
This is not an honourable war, this is a dishonourable fraud and an invasion.
No one should go, and every mother and father out there should fight.
My father, a WW2 Vet, would have wanted me to do what I did...he hated Vietnam and thought it was a waste and fraud just like he would have hated this fraudulent war for money.
DU would and will help any man or woman out there who doesnt want to go.
I have a house in MI for any young man or woman who wants to hide from this illegal occupation of Iraq for an illegal administration who is more then happy to murder all of our sons and daughters. I am 4 hours from Canada.

[absyntheNsugar]

20. How do we...

Kick this up a knotch?

I'm not much of an idea guy...just tell me what to do...

[Don_G]

21. My Father Srved An "Extended" Tour During the Korean "Conflict"

He was pissed, but back then he justified it by having clear-cut orders to win and knowing the President would back up your actions after the fact and knowing "He" would have not personally profited from your actions on the line.

I Honestly never met your son, but when I was "draft fodder" for the Vietnam War, my "draftee" cousin with two Silver Stars told me flat out and front-up to emigrate to Canada if I had the chance.

I'm on your side 100 percent....