President Obama said that he and his advisors are seriously and carefully looking at this change and are doing so with the input of military families and the Department of Defense."
American soldiers coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
"It's a public act to go to war and it's a public act to come home, however you get here."
At President Obama's press conference on Monday night (2/9/09), Ed Henry, CNNSenior White House Correspondent, asked a very unanticipated and sensitive question: Was he, President Obama, going to change the current rule so that the media can photograph the flag-draped coffins of American soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan?
President Obama said that he and his advisors are seriously and carefully looking at this change and are doing so with the input of military families and the Department of Defense.
Since then there have been a few articles in the news, notably Katharine Seelye'sarticle in The New York Times online today.
In her article Ms. Seelye acknowledges that there are indeed differing views. Some military families want total privacy even though the coffins are draped and there are absolutely no identifying marks on them.
Others, including one grieving father, said that he wished the media had captured the very tender moment of the military respectfully receiving his son, an image he would surely have kept close to his heart forever.
Others --grieving family members or not --feel that it is important that we have a reality check on what the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost us. When the U.S. engages in these wars, there are concrete, definite, solid consequences: the dead bodies of our cherished men and women soldiers.
Some feel that by not showing pictures of the coffins that we are shamefully sneaking the dead soldiers back into the country. Joseph Biden, who now has a son in Iraq, believed this as a Senator and no doubt continues to do so as Vice President.
Many of us are visual learners; we don't get it unless we have a picture. For some it is seeing the coffins of the now 4,865 dead soldiers that can provide the visual for understanding the human side of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
For others, like Republican Congressman Walter Jones from North Carolina, it was letters -- writing letters to constituents. Along the way of signing some 8,000 letters to grieving family members, he regretted voting for the Iraqi War.
What does it take for us to learn that each and every life is precious, that we can't afford to sacrifice one person's life? When will we humans figure out how to live, work and love together?
As painful as the loss of life is, the pain and changed lives the surviving families and friends must contend with is just as important. As each coffin is returned, there are fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters, children, grandparents, friends, school chums, colleagues and neighbors who will feel a stab in the heart, a heartbreaking wound. Maybe the breadwinner is now gone or it's the father or mother the child will never know.
On a societal level, we also suffer a loss: the artist whose masterpiece we'll never see, the musician whose music we'll never hear, the physician whose healing hands we'll never feel, the teacher's demand for excellence we'll never benefit from.
It's painful to hear the stories about the deceased soldiers and their families. The least we can do is watch the respectful military process for welcoming these dead soldiers home and with each coffin renew our determination to live peacefully together on our dear Planet Earth.
My precious father was in both WW II and the Korean War. Had he died in either of these wars, I would have wanted his return home to have been public. It's a public act to go to war and it's a public act to return home, however you get here. Our family was very fortunate to have him return home alive and well. My heart goes out to all those who aren't as fortunate as we were.
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