Wounded

I invested in a satellite radio for the car so I can listen to news or Jazz all day long. No commercials....It is heaven.

There was a very moving feature story on NPR the other day. It was about a family who is caring for their son who is paralyzed below the neck after being wounded in the first few days of bush's war in Iraq. I was reminded of the story yesterday at breakfast with my good friend Steve Cobble who was in town. As we sat over coffee a young man who was horribly disfigured walked into the cafe with him family. I don't know what happened to him but he was of military age and it is possible he may have been a wounded American Soldier from that war.

The NPR story was recounting the changes that have occurred to the entire family of that other wounded soldier. Rather than put him in an underfunded Veterans Administration nursing home the family is taking care of him and paying for full time nursing care. The family was recently celebrating the young man learning how to swallow again.

After almost three years the family is about bankrupt. You really have to stop and wonder if bush, cheney, rice, rumsfeld and wolfowitz ever stop and think of the long range consequences of what they have done to these veterans and their families. I don't think they really care or think about it. I have a growing rage within me every time I see or hear about these situations. You really have to wonder if we as a country can ever atone to the families and the international community for what we have done here.