Followup To A Funeral

[A couple of weeks ago, I posted a threader titled Two Funerals and A Waiting in which I quote four Erie Times-News reporters who filed some particularly well-written stories about fallen soldiers and their families in that small city on the edge of a great lake in what is sometimes referred to as "Flyover Country."
I've been keeping an eye on that paper's website for any followup comments since posting that threader, and I saw this letter to the editor there this morning. I think it's especially worth calling attention to here at the DCP because the author is speaking up for the huge silent majority that still holds forth across America. It's plain from his comments that's not a young hothead, he's not a moonbat, in fact he's probably not even a "liberal" by any stretch of that word.
People like the man who penned this LTTE don't go to peace marches in Washington. They don't dress up in pink and carry signs demanding impeachment. They don't watch C-Span or read Daily Kos. They don't cultivate a well-informed, detailed understanding of the complexities of re-balancing the three branches of government in a time of imperial presidencies. They just go about their daily affairs with a general sense of what's going on around them.
It takes a long time spent living lives of increasingly-unquiet desperation to finally make people from the silent majority stand up to be counted and to write letters like this one. That's why I think it's important to include it here as a followup to my earlier threader, because these are the people who we really need to listen to. These are the people who we really need to reach out and touch, if we're ever going to end this illegal, immoral war and depose the tyrants currently occupying the West Wing and the Pentagon...]
At my age, most men seldom cry. But I cried twice after being drawn to Laurel Hill Cemetery to observe the funeral procession for Sgt. 1st Class Raymond Buchan, who was one more victim of what I feel is a senseless war in Iraq.
I sat in my car and watched the proceeding from a distance. The breeze made hundreds of American flags on graves of other men and women who have served this country seem to stand at attention as the honor guards, family and friends of Buchan gathered. I had plenty of time to meditate on the moment.
Buchan was in Iraq representing my country and me when insurgents killed him. Why? I won't second-guess Buchan's motivation for wanting to serve his country but I am suspicious of the motivations of my country and, by association, me.
I watched the committal ceremony for almost two hours. The sky was crystal clear and the only thing I heard were birds singing. I was startled by the 21-gun salute, and I got a lump in my throat as I watched the American flag being removed from the casket. In the distance, I heard the haunting echo of "Taps." I cried.
Out of respect, I waited until the funeral procession had left the cemetery to leave myself. As I neared the entrance to the cemetery, I glanced to my right. There was the grave of a good friend, a former coworker by the name of David Ignasiak. He had graduated from Fort LeBoeuf High School and, when he felt a calling, joined the U.S. Marines. He was among the first of Erie's finest to be killed by hostile gunfire in Vietnam.
I had to pull my car to the side of the road because, once again, I cried.
While I wholeheartedly support our troops, I am suspicious of our government leaders and their motivations and what appears to be a clueless direction.
Let's concentrate on defending ourselves, rather than being an aggressor nation.
Paul E. Fischer,Erie, PA
Posted by Rick Albertson at August 1, 2007 12:26 PM
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