Women of Hope, Women of Courage, Women of War
Photo: Fort Bragg 1966
Left- me looking shocked that may dad may be shipped off to Viet Nam, my dad Albert Bass III and my brother Bob Bass.
During my dance meditation class this morning, the DJ played a thought provoking song about war. Not something I normally want to listen to during my peaceful class. I immediately reacted and felt pains in my body. One of the lyrics was about women waking up in the morning to find all their children murdered during the night.
Yikes! BREATH! I still react now even writing it. For someone like myself who has had several pregnancy losses, I can't imagine having my live children killed by war. Sometimes, I forget we are a country at war. I don't listen to the news because I WANT TO FORGET. I don't ever ever ever want to think of my son dying in a senseless war.
On September 11, 2001, I woke up mortified and felt as if I had been blown to bits inside. Instead of sitting their crying, which I did plenty of, I drew out that activist inside of me and built a website about the 911 trajedy that same day that focused on peace and forgiveness and promoted my pacifist views of life. I bet you didn't know I was a web designer in a previous time.
It has been almost 6 years since the event and that site still gets over 500 visitors a month. In total, I have had at least 100,000 people visit it. Who says a single person can't make a difference from their living room!
Why am I a pacifist? You see ... I was born at Fort Bragg in 1996 during the peak of the Viet Nam war. Fort Bragg was one of the US's most combat ready and active military intallations and my Father, at the young age of 22 was drafted and being trained as a Green Beret in the Special Forces of the Army. He comes from a long line of heroic Fathers who fought in WWI and WWII and he felt it was his duty to defend our country.
As a daughter who could have lost her Father in another senseless war (you would think our country would learn), I think about the grief and pain I would have suffered my whole life if this happened. I thank those lucky stars, and the wisdom of my parents (mostly my mom) that prevented my dad from re-enlisting, so that it didn't happen. When I visited Viet Nam, I was able to do so with peace in my heart. I still wept at the war memorial in Viet Nam for my Father's friends who died there and the Vietnamese soldiers who never had the chance to grow up with peace in their hearts.
Part of the reason I want a woman President is because I can't imagine a woman would ever send our sons to die in war. We spend our whole lives nurturing our children and praying they turn out to be responsible citizens, the last thing on our mind is to imagine them dying in a senseless death. We must try to find peace before we jump hastily towards a war.
A war that has cost you billions of dollars.
A woman President would much rather put the cost of the Iraq war - that $411 billion dollars of taxpayer money (mounting daily) towards:
During my dance meditation class this morning, the DJ played a thought provoking song about war. Not something I normally want to listen to during my peaceful class. I immediately reacted and felt pains in my body. One of the lyrics was about women waking up in the morning to find all their children murdered during the night.
Yikes! BREATH! I still react now even writing it. For someone like myself who has had several pregnancy losses, I can't imagine having my live children killed by war. Sometimes, I forget we are a country at war. I don't listen to the news because I WANT TO FORGET. I don't ever ever ever want to think of my son dying in a senseless war.
On September 11, 2001, I woke up mortified and felt as if I had been blown to bits inside. Instead of sitting their crying, which I did plenty of, I drew out that activist inside of me and built a website about the 911 trajedy that same day that focused on peace and forgiveness and promoted my pacifist views of life. I bet you didn't know I was a web designer in a previous time.
It has been almost 6 years since the event and that site still gets over 500 visitors a month. In total, I have had at least 100,000 people visit it. Who says a single person can't make a difference from their living room!
Why am I a pacifist? You see ... I was born at Fort Bragg in 1996 during the peak of the Viet Nam war. Fort Bragg was one of the US's most combat ready and active military intallations and my Father, at the young age of 22 was drafted and being trained as a Green Beret in the Special Forces of the Army. He comes from a long line of heroic Fathers who fought in WWI and WWII and he felt it was his duty to defend our country.
As a daughter who could have lost her Father in another senseless war (you would think our country would learn), I think about the grief and pain I would have suffered my whole life if this happened. I thank those lucky stars, and the wisdom of my parents (mostly my mom) that prevented my dad from re-enlisting, so that it didn't happen. When I visited Viet Nam, I was able to do so with peace in my heart. I still wept at the war memorial in Viet Nam for my Father's friends who died there and the Vietnamese soldiers who never had the chance to grow up with peace in their hearts.
Part of the reason I want a woman President is because I can't imagine a woman would ever send our sons to die in war. We spend our whole lives nurturing our children and praying they turn out to be responsible citizens, the last thing on our mind is to imagine them dying in a senseless death. We must try to find peace before we jump hastily towards a war.
A war that has cost you billions of dollars.
A woman President would much rather put the cost of the Iraq war - that $411 billion dollars of taxpayer money (mounting daily) towards:
- sending 54,448,641 children to attend a year of Head Start Preschool or
- insuring 246,160,098children for one year or
- providing 19,928,613 students four-year scholarships at public universities or
- 124,197additional public school teachers for one year.
a Woman of hope,
a woman of courage,
a women of war ...
Women who know what war is, would do everything in their power to stay out of war. Not take any opportunity they can to get into war. For war doesn't just have a tax-payer cost it takes a huge financial toll on those who lose the head of the household in a war.
If my father would have died in the Viet Nam war my life would have been completely different and I probably wouldn't be here blogging to you right now. There would be no Ms.Money. I may have not gone to college. My mother would have had difficulty making a living while trying to financially and emotionally support 3 children. I just don't know what she would have done. Hopefully, other women would have risen to the chance to help her.
My mother would have survived though, because she is a woman of hope, of courage and war. She would have pulled through, but thank goodness she didn't have to. And I would have ultimately been ok also, though my cards would have landed on the table much differently.
Let's take a moment to think about all those women who did lose their husbands in war and think about how we can help them emotionally and financially. And let's think about how we can prevent future deaths.
Links:
Military Widows Unite
National Society of Military Widows
Army Widows Association
posted by Ms.Money @ 1:52 PM
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