The other day, I wrote for my blog a fictional story called “The Life and Death of a Soldier” and it was published on OpEdNews.com. I received a comment coming from someone who is going through this in real life. Real life stories trump fictional ones any day of the week.
It reminded me of a piece once written by me for Buzzflash.com called, “Our Memorial Day Shoah to Support our Troops” and in my response back to my reader, I stated in part, “Perhaps if we were to keep calling, emailing, faxing the names of real soldiers and what their family life is like, it may be our answer. That is because these politicians will no longer look at them in an abstract way, but as real flesh and blood people with those who do love them.”
Thank you,Mary MacElveen!
May 17, 2005 Our Memorial Day Shoah to Support Our Troops
A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
By Mary MacElveen I decided to write an early article for this Memorial Day because what I am about to ask all of you is to become the Shoah for our troops still alive and fighting hellish wars over in Iraq and Afghanistan.
If you are not familiar with the term Shoah, it is an organization started by director Steven Spielberg shortly after he made Schindler’s List. This story chronicles the bravery of one man whose name was Oskar Schindler who saved the lives of many Jews during the Holocaust. Mr. Spielberg decided to bring these victims and survivors stories alive so that they would not be seen as just mere statistics, but as real live people, so that we could get a better understanding of what life was like back in that time. As I stated earlier, he started this organization just after the movie wrapped so that survivors of this nightmare in history could tell their stories in the hopes of such a tragedy never happening again.
In our daily travels, we see those magnetic decals on cars which state “Support Our Troops.” I am always left asking myself many questions: Do we know their names, much less their stories? Do we truly know what their life is like over in those war torn countries? Do many Americans actually care to get to know these brave men and women?
Many of us do know the statistics of those killed in these wars and those numbers can become abstracts that hinder us all from doing anything about it. But, if we were to know them and relay their stories, it may be the turning point in this horror. That is where you and I come into play and in honor of those already fallen in past wars and these present ones I want us to start our American Shoah by telling their stories. So that we get to know each of them by their name, how they are living and what their fears are.
You may be asking yourself, but how do I seek out someone who has a loved one overseas? They are in your communities, churches and work places. Or by happenstance, they may present themselves to you in a busy shopping mall which happened to me today. Take time to speak with them, ask how their loved one is doing and what their name is. Please tell them that you would like to write to you elected officials on their behalf so that they do know of these servicemen and women’s experiences overseas. If they do not want their names to be given out for privacy reasons or for their safety, respect that and just simply state, I met someone whose son or daughter is overseas and I want to tell you a little about them. I want these elected officials to know who they are and that they are not just a number. You are their Shoahs. I would love nothing more than to see in honor of these servicemen and women for their stories to be told by Memorial Day in hopes that in the near future we can bring them home for good.
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