When they called her name, she could not move. Sgt. Leana Nishimura intended to walk up proudly, shake the dignitaries' hands and accept their honors for her service in Iraq-- a special coin, a lapel pin, a glass-encased U.S. flag.
But her son clung to her leg. He cried and held tight, she recalled. And so Nishimura stayed where she was, and the ceremony last summer went on without her. T.J. was 9, her oldest child, and although eight months had passed since she had returned from the war zone, he was still upset by anything that reminded him of her deployment.
He remembered the long separation. The faraway move to live with his grandmother. The months that went by without his mother's kisses or hugs, without her scrutiny of homework, her teasing humor, her familiar bedtime songs.
Nishimura was a single mother -- with no spouse to take over, to preserve her children's routines, to keep up the family apartment.
Of her three children, T.J. seemed to worry most. He sent letter after letter to the war zone, where she was a communications specialist, part of the Maryland National Guard.
"He went from having one parent to having no parents, basically," Nishimura said, reflecting, "People have said, 'Thank you so much for your sacrifice.' But it's the children who have had more of a sacrifice."
I had pretty much the same reaction to this as I had to the flat daddies -- foamcore cutouts of parents at war -- WTF are we doing? The people who are the biggest fans of this war are the people who scream about 'family values.'
Here's a crazy idea for the family values crowd -- why don't you stop worrying about the 'values' part and start worrying about the 'family' part? Why don't you shut the hell up about morals while you're tearing apart families in the US and blowing them all to hell in Iraq?
The guy dressed up like Liz Taylor in the gay pride parade has more moral fiber in his pinkie than any hypocritical cheerleader for the Republican party. The people outside abortion clinics with their sick little signs couldn't give a shit about actual families and actual children. No, it's the hypothetical children who are the big concern.
You want to convince me you're moral or ethical? Stop this damned war -- until then, shut the hell up.
Tags: news politics war Iraq religious right republican morons
