PeaceBang

Angry America

I met a military mom at the nail salon today. Her son, a 35-year old Army officer, husband and father of two small children is being sent off for this second tour of duty in Iraq: this time for 18 months.

His mother is a nervous wreck about it.
Realizing she had a sympathetic ear, Military Mama vented for 15 uninterrupted minutes about the moral depravity of the war, the “dirtiness” of the Bush Administration, and the lack of news coverage about the true conditions in Iraq, including on the thousands and thousands of our troops who are coming home so badly injured that they’ve lost the will to live, even though medical science has managed to patch their bodies back up.

“But of course that’s nothing compared to the devastation we’ve caused to the Iraqi people,” quoth she.

“And if I complain or question,” she says, “I’m not patriotic. I don’t support our troops. I’m a bad American. Like they’re making Cindy Sheehan out to be. A left-wing nut job.”

She gave me this tip: when sending packages to servicemen and women, send them in strong plastic containers. Apparently our soldiers are living among a healthy and rampant flea and mouse population (while the higher ranking officers get air-conditioned rooms).
Halliburton, which supplies food for our troops, is providing green eggs and green meat. Her son lost 35 lbs. on his most recent tour of duty. She’d like to throttle Dick Cheney (I told her I’d sit on him while she did).

I deeply regret that I didn’t invite this woman to church. She left to get her wallet and said she’d come back, but I left before she showed up again. I left my card for her with the church website on it. What else can we do but encourage people who are suffering such anger and anxiety to find a supportive community?

(Sister of PeaceBang sent me this link of a veteran wearing his “bullshit protector” while listening to George Bush address a gathering of the Veterans of Foreign Wars)

In other local news, a gas station owner shut off his pumps and closed up shop. Take this job and shove it, indeed. His family has been in the gas business since 1917 but this man is sick and tired of taking verbal abuse from pissed off motorists who actually think he’s making a bunch more profit from the insane gas prices.

How ignorant and uncivil. Like some random guy in Quincy, MA is to blame for the fact that it costs you $40 to fill your SUV. Jeezy Creezy.