Good Eats

In my puttering around the internets, I often stumble on interesting stories written by people with perspectives that are significantly different from anything in my own experience. Here are a couple of stories from diverging perspectives, that have been following me around for some time.

The first is from "Army of Dude, Reporting on Truth, Justice and the American Way of War". Not sure what I can add to this. Everybody knows that the war in Iraq is a clusterfuck, but this provides a real opportunity for a fresh first person perspective. A quote that has been receiving a bit of press is:

In the future, I want my children to grow up with the belief that what I did here was wrong, in a society that doesn't deem that idea unpatriotic.

Another entry that has been on my mind for months now, is a first person 'story' from a family living in Baghdad. Really, just go read it as anything that I might say would sound trite. A quick taste:

When I heard the bomb explode last Saturday the first thing I did was telephone my father. But there was no reply. Again and again and again I tried to phone him. My fingers hurt I stabbed them onto the buttons on my phone so hard. I fell onto the floor and prayed please let him not be dead. Please let it be that he died quick if he is dead.

And my heart was sick inside me.

What will we talk about today you and I? I do not want to talk about last Saturday. Shall we talk about peace? I would like to talk about peace. I love the word. No, perhaps we are not ready to talk of peace yet you and I, we are not at peace, we are not even at truce.

I did not desire to have a blog full of links, but these stories have both haunted me a bit. Enjoy.