Lost Soldiers or Lost Boys and Girls?

FIRST LT. BRIAN N. BRADSHAW, ARMY Killed June 25, 2009, Kheyl, Afghanistan; roadside bomb. AGE: 24 HOMETOWN: Steilacoom, Wash.

Here is something for reflection on a Sunday evening after the storm caused by the passage of the Health Care Bill in Congress has left by the polling data, most of the country in a state of flux, anger and confusion.


Dexter Filkins wrote this exquisite piece in the New York Times Magazine, accompanied by a photo essay that reminds us of the sacrifice of a few young Americans on our behalf.

Just kids. You step into the barracks thinking big, burly and deep-voiced. And what you get are chubby faces and halfhearted mustaches and voices still cracking, boys hurried into uniforms and handed heavy guns. Sept. 11 was junior high, fifth grade even, a half a lifetime ago. Megan Fox is everywhere, plastered above the bunks, the best that Maxim can offer. Junk food, too, sent A.P.O. (Army Post Office) from home: powdered Gatorade and M&M’s and teriyaki jerky. Underwear and socks. “Love you, bro,” scrawled a sister from California on a care package to Ramadi, Iraq. “Muwah!”

Read the whole post, then pray or pour a couple of fingers and meditate.
Lost Soldiers and War Memorials With Neatly Made Beds.