Exhibit on war heartbreaking
Column by L.A. Parker - My 7-year-old son voiced jubilation.
We were headed for the mall.
He quickly learned that in Washington, D.C. there are malls and then there is the National Mall.
The latter means walking along the Reflecting Pool toward the Washington Monument.
We were in the nation’s capital for a daughter/sister visit. My daughter is now a senior at American University.
Children grow.
Unfortunately, some of them will never see the full light of adulthood like a slew of young men and women being siphoned off in Iraq.
The numbers rise like water in a neglected tub.
In war, we fail to realize the magnitude of a flood of death and suffering until our feet are awash in blood from a relative, a friend’s son or daughter.
American Friends Service Committee hosted an exhibit on The Mall last week.
The acclaimed event featured boots and shoes honoring the casualties of the Iraq war.
The "Silence of the Dead -- Voices of the Living: A Witness to End the War in Iraq" attracted military families, veterans, Iraqi war survivors and peace activists together.
They memorialized the nearly 2,500 U.S. soldiers who have perished in Iraq plus approximately 100,000 Iraqis killed.
Event organizers secured enough black boots for perished Americans but could not amass a necessary amount of flip flops, sandals, loafers, sneakers, etc. to represent dead Iraqis.
There were boots there for numerous Trenton area residents including Master Sgt. Terry Hemingway, 39, of Willingboro; Spc. Ryan T. Baker, 24, of Browns Mills; Pfc. Nate DeTample, 19, of Morrisville, Pa., etc.
Two women reverently named each dead U.S. military person whose names drifted up toward the Washington Monument and rode a breeze toward a place where dead soldiers’ spirits rest.
(Spc. 4 William MaherIII, 35, of Yardley, Pa.)
Whatever your stand on this war, a wade through the exhibit will undoubtedly produce an aching heart.
Tears welled in my eyes for both American and Iraqi individuals, especially those small shoes that represented a young Iraqi kid blown to smitherines and beyond.
So much pain and hurt overwhelms and exhausts.
(Spc. 4 Maurice Johnson, 21, of Levittown, Pa.)
My hope for not being found out by my son and daughter rested on prayers for an eye-drying wind.
Even now positioned at my desk tears must be placed in hiding from co-workers.
Real men don’t cry until shrapnel cuts through tendon and bone or an improvised explosive device takes an arm, leg or heart.
Until rows of black boots stand motionless in sunshine.
(Sgt. Brian L. Freeman, Jr., 31, of Lumberton)
Our brave soldiers march forward toward Bataan, Vietnam or something worse.
Their caskets arrive under the cover of darkness wrapped in the U.S. flag.
These covert returns muffle the reality of battle. We pay a human expense for war that eventually bankrupts our souls.
(Army Lt. Seth Dvorin, 24, of Hopewell, Spc. Narson B. Sullivan, 21, of North Brunswick, Spc. Philip "Spanky" Spakosky, 25, of Pemberton.....)
And it’s one, two, three. What are we fighting for?
L.A. Parker is a Trentonian staff writer. His columns appear on Thursdays and Saturdays. Reach him at laparker@Trentonian.com.
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