Jill Read’s nephew wounded in Iraq
THIS COLUMN BY JILL READ ABOUT HER NEPHEW WHO WAS RECENTLY WOUNDED IN IRAQ RAN IN TODAY’S ADVANCE NEWSPAPER.
Just come home Tyler
The phone rang. It was a little after 6:15 a.m. on a Monday morning . It was my Dad’s voice at the other end of the line. He usually calls a little later in the morning to wish me a good day. I knew something was wrong.
“Willy (my nickname), Tyler’s been hit. He’s hurt and it’s life-threatening injuries. We don’t know anything more.” My Dad was crying. I started screaming. “What do we do?” I asked my Dad.
“Just pray,” my Dad answered back.
It was my worst fear. It was my family’s worst fear.
Her nephew Tyler Haynes is a US Marine. She writes of the worry-filled days following and of her reflections on how the harsh world sometimes comes crashing in on us.
I also thought how my family believed we were sheltered from all the atrocities that happen when our country is engaged in a war.
The thing is, we aren’t sheltered.
I believe that if more Americans don’t come to grips with the situation we’re facing, if we don’t wake up to the threat of those who have promised to destroy us, more of us are going to experience very rude awakenings when those we love and care for are harmed.
I don’t intend to spend a lot of time here on MichiBlogger covering international politics and the Long Global War on TerrorTM, which I call World War 4, but those of you who read my site Murdoc Online will know that I am very serious about the war we are fighting. It’s not a daily struggle for survival, but then wars rarely are. Rather, we’re in the early stages of the beginning of the war. In fact, some of the easiest tasks, the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, are long finished.
When the war and West Michigan intersect, you can bet MichiBlogger will have something to say. And if you want to hear more, be sure to check out Murdoc Online.
One last bit of the Read column I’d like to point out:
On Halloween night, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things. I saw a toddler dressed in fatigues, and wanted to slap his mom. “How dare you make fun of our military,” I thought.
A year ago, I would have thought that child was cute.
Funny, how things change.
I must admit that I don’t understand how a kid dressing up as a soldier on Halloween night is “making fun of our military” any more than other kids are making fun of police officers, fire fighters, or doctors when they dress up in those particular costumes.
The column lacks specifics, so we don’t know when Tyler Haynes was injured or how he’s doing now. Certainly, he and his family should be in our prayers.