What he told me nearly broke my heart and put such an intimate immediacy on the face of Egypt, war, this world that we now live in and why we need to all be paying closer attention.
(Paraphrased)
"I'm 23 years-old and have looked for but been unable to find a steady job for three years. I've worked in construction (which I love) off the books, but nobody is building anything around here anymore. I have my GED but can't afford college and don't qualify for financial aid. I'm good with computers and would love to go to a technical school but I don't have the money and can't get work because I don't have a college education," he said. My heart sank deeper.
He went on to explain that he felt as if his life was worthless and that there was no hope for a job or the future and that he may as well join the military so he can "do something", get paid and eventually be able to go to college.
I asked him when he planned on enlisting and he said within the next three weeks.
I listened to all this as revolt played out on the screen in front of us, half a world away.
My head was spinning and, as I sometimes do, I felt compelled to offer some perspective and advice as if I had birthed this boy myself.
The first thing I told him was obvious. He's young and therefore thinks he's invincible
and immortal and that nothing bad will ever happen to him. I informed him that the military
loves nothing more than to round up young kids with that kind of attitude and
use them as pawns to do their dirty work so a few people behind the scenes can
benefit and make sickening stockpiles of money that we he will never
see. I also warned him that
regardless of the promises the military might make about his (or anyone else's)
future, the future is guaranteed to no one.
I got his interest.
Then I went on to tell him that our country has a very poor record of taking care of our veterans. I asked him to imagine himself returning from combat with a missing limb and PTSD, hearing anguished screams or bombs in his head for the rest of his life and trying to learn to walk with a prosthetic leg. I told him in no uncertain terms that I did not wish this on him or anyone else, but the ugly truth about war is that but for the lucky few who come out of it without seeing combat, it's not as pretty a picture as they paint in the recruiting stations and shiny brochures.
I made him promise me he would go to a VA hospital and visit with soldiers. I implored him to ask some of the people who are all but forgotten and being barely treated by our "system" if they had to do it over, whether they would make the same decision to enlist again.
And then I begged this young boy to give me 30 days to find him a job so he wouldn't have to make a choice of enlisting because the reality of life in America today has put this fully loaded gun against his head.
I'm sending out e-mails and this story to friends (including the CEO of the restaurant where we met) and doing everything possible to help change the direction of (and potentially save) this young man's life. (His girlfriend works at the restaurant, which is why he was there; he had come to pick her up from her shift. Believe me, I asked if he was so poor, what he was doing there.) Somebody needs to give this young man a job.
Joe DiMartino has no criminal record (when I asked him, he replied with authority, "Absolutely not."). He has a clean driving record. He's obviously strong, willing and like many others, frustrated and able. But a 50 year-old jobless man faces different obligations and frustrations than a 23 year-old. The older (wiser) person may have a better grasp of implications for choices that are made; a younger version often sees no other way out and makes rash decisions. The military kind of likes it that way.
26 year-old Mohammed Bouazizi may one day be the poster child of the revolution that is now taking place in Egypt. For the uninformed, he was the man who, after having his fruit cart taken away by the Tunisian government, set himself on fire in protest. He died three weeks later, without knowing that ten days after his death, President Zine El Abedine Ben Ali finally fled the police state he had controlled for 23 years.
Mohammed started the fire of change people could believe in and the flames have spread quickly throughout the Middle East. Egypt's rage rages on.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
