Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Of all those who protested Terri Schiavo's wrongful death...

...how many support the war in Iraq? Let's see a show of hands.



CNN reports on its War In Iraq site:
There have been 1,702 coalition troop deaths, 1,528 Americans, 86 Britons, eight Bulgarians, one Dane, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Hungarian, 21 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, one Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 17 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of March 29, 2005.
The site also lists, alphabetically and chronologically, the American soldiers who have died in the war. Did Terri Schiavo's protestors also protest the deaths of Cpl. Roberto Abad, Cmdr. Joseph Acevedo, Sgt. Michael D. Acklin II, Spc. Genaro Acosta, Pfc. Steven Acosta, Capt. James F. Adamouski, Pvt. Algernon Adams, Sgt. Brandon E. Adams, Sgt. Leonard W. Adams, 1st Lt. Michael R. Adams, Pfc. Michael S. Adams, Lt. Thomas Mullen Adams, Spc. Jamaal R. Addison, Lance Cpl. Patrick R. Adle, Pfc. Christopher S. Adlesperger, Lance Cpl. Jeramy A. Ailes, Capt. Tristan N. Aitken, Spc. Segun Frederick Akintade, Capt. Paul C. Alaniz, Lance Cpl. Nickalous N. Aldrich, Spc. Azhar Ali, Cpl. Stephen John Allbutt, Spc. Ronald D. Allen Jr., Sgt. Glenn R. Allison, Spc. Jeremy O. Allmon, Lance Cpl. Michael J. Allred, Sapper Luke Allsopp, Capt. Eric. L. Allton, Cpl. Nicanor Alvarez, Cpl. Daniel R. Amaya...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've just read thought your posts, I come to the conclusion that
you are a sad and angry person.
You are typical of your kind...

John Evan Garvey said...

Jose,

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts.

Sad? Actually yes. It's called recurrent depression and I've had it since my teen years. Medication helps. Angry? No. Irritated and disappointed that people irrationally cling to ancient belief systems because of the identity they derive from belonging to a specific group. But angry? No. Takes too much energy.

Typical of my kind? Let me guess, I think you mean gay white males. Or did you mean white middle-aged males? Or did you mean middle-aged males living in California? Or did you mean liberal bloggers living in California? Typical, no. There aren't too many gay men who want to redesign the American flag. Or who joined a gay Arab Yahoo group in order to understand and maybe help others understand Muslim-Americans.

You know, if you really set your mind to it, you could convert from being Latino. Others have. Change is up to you.

Have a great day, Jose.

kender said...

You're funny.

John Evan Garvey said...

Gribbit,

I understand your point of view--wanting me to grow a mind of my own and break away from the herd to make independent decisions. I do worry about group-think and team mentality with the country so polarized now. How do we become so entrenched in one point of view that we find it impossible to understand the point of view of those who disagree with us, who are equally entrenched and cannot understand our point of view? I hate this polarization.

My drawing a parallel between Terri's death and the deaths of so many individual soldiers was simply a way to highlight the paradox of conservatives saying "THIS death must be prevented, while THESE deaths are okay." Almost every soldier who died had a mother like Mrs. Schindler, who wanted to prevent the death of her child. Why is that mother's grief any less significant than Mrs. Schindler's grief? Loss is loss. Death is death. It's admirable that conservatives want to prevent deaths like Terri's, and like that of any aborted fetus. That's ADMIRABLE. But how is it that conservatives, at the same time, are able to accept the deaths of so many soldiers?