Kris Schultz

I just posted this on Mydd.com diary section, where I'm known as (surprise) schultzy. I just noticed a few typos - I need to stop posting my first drafts of things, don't I? Anyway.

I thought you guys would like to read it - the original post on mydd.com also has a poll that I started, and I urge you to go there and vote on my question, too:

The Faces of Those Two Soldiers Haunt Me...
by schultzy, Fri Jun 23, 2006 at 11:35:21 AM EST

My friend brought me a copy of the Express, a free publication from the Washington Post, when I was sick this week. This publication usually gets a quick flip-through, then a swift toss into the recycle bin. This one is different - the one from June 21. It has the pictures of Thomas Tucker and Kristian Menchaca on the front. Their bodies were found on Tuesday. They were brutally executed - "barbaric killing" the paper says. But they are so young and handsome and innocent in these pictures, and it rips my heart out. I have kept these pictures face up on the table, and every time I pass it, I stare at them and am deeply sad.

I go through this with every new milestone the media announces - or every time NPR airs a profile on a dead soldier or any time I see one of those "soldiers who died today" lists on the news - I I am gripped in grief for a stranger. They are there fighting for us, so I do take it personally, even though I don't know these men and women. But I don't want them there for Bush's lie, and I get just as angry as I did the morning I woke up and saw Bush was elected President in 2004.

The public wants the war to end, but only 13 Senators voted for a firm timetable to withdraw our troops. Of the 13 includes my new cause: raising awareness that Senator Akaka is facing a primary challenge from a pro-war D-in-name-only. I am going to find a way to express my gratitude to him - probably send a small donation.

When is this war going to end? Unfortunately, not soon enough for these two beautiful young men who died. Why hasn't Bush been held accountable for the lies he told to get us in this bogus war, causing these two beautiful men, and over 2500 other soldiers, to die? I know I have to recycle this paper at some point, but I can't let them go.

Only 13 Senators voted to do the right thing yesterday, and the timetable seemed too long to me, in a sense. And yet only 13 did the right thing. Yep, the anger's back. I'm going to do the only thing I know to do - keep blogging, donate to a candidate or two (Akaka gets a small check of thanks from me today), and start to figure out a way to get back on the campaign trail. That's the only way I know to channel all this anger.


{UPDATE JUNE 25, 2006}
Gratitude to the following 13 Senators who stood up and voted the will of the American people:

Akaka (D-HI) Boxer (D-CA) Durbin (D-IL) Feingold (D-WI) Harkin (D-IA)

Inouye (D-HI) Jeffords (I-VT) Kennedy (D-MA) Kerry (D-MA) Lautenberg (D-NJ)

Leahy (D-VT) Menendez (D-NJ) Wyden (D-OR)

# posted by Kris Schultz : 11:45 AM