Two Days Out

If anybody looks at the title of today's post and the date they might get a sense of the connection between the two -- but there's a little more to it.  Bear in mind the theme of my blog is Gratitude.  Today's thoughts start with something I read yesterday but relate to Sept. 11.  So I'll start with what I read yesterday.

My cousin Mavis Ann posted on her Facebook page that she saw an interview with a freelance journalist who said her son Jonathan had saved his life while he was embedded with their unit.  She gave the name of  the TV station where the interview was still available.  Now, I know more about that story than the barebones facts she put in that posting.  I know more because I attended Jonathan's funeral in August last year after he was killed in Afghanistan by an IED.  Jon was a 21-year-old Marine defending our country.  I watched his beautiful mother, in her quiet, dignified way, deal with the loss of her equally beautiful son who willingly gave his life, doing something he loved.  I also met his young wife, carrying their unborn child.

Mavis Ann found out for the first time in the interview about Jon's heroic act in saving the journalist.  We always knew he was a hero, and here was someone who lived to tell us another story about his heroism.  So, I have some special people on my mind that I am very grateful for -- Mavis Ann and Jonathan.  They represent the sacrifice that is required to keep our country free.

But Mavis Ann and Jonathan also stand for so many other mothers and sons and daughters -- thousands upon thousands that have died just in these two wars alone, and that does not count the many others so terribly wounded and scarred.  (I think of Ray and his family that our country let down by not being there to recognize the injury and provide treatment before it was too late.  I wish I could fix that.)  Our military families have borne a horribly disproportionate burden during these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I know that because I've seen it up close.  My gratitude goes to Mavis and Jon and his wife, and now to Zoe, the baby that will never know her dad -- and to all those other families that serve in the military or support a service member.

The interview that Mavis mentioned can be found at http://www.oeta.tv/ontherecord.html in the section with Mike Boettcher.  The whole interview with Mike is worth watching if you have the time, but the story about Jonathan is around the 24 minute point.  It is especially poignant to know that Jon died only 2 weeks after this incident happened.

The interview with Mike also got me to thinking.  The journalists go right into harm's way also -- to tell us the story of the soldiers and marines. And that's very important, to know their names and hear their stories.  Jonathan is not a name on a wall or a list. He is my cousin's son (and my cousin, too).

With the journalists there, the soldiers and marines are not left unknown, their stories are not left untold.  But their presence comes at a price.  According to the Committe to Protect Journalists 139 journalists were killed in the line of duty in Iraq between March 2003 and October 2009.  That does not count accidents, health-related deaths, etc.  So, my gratitude also goes to Mike Boettcher who, in September 2010, goes back to Afghanistan for another year-long assignment with his son as his photographer.  He says he "owes it to the Jonathans [and Geralds] of the world to tell their story.  They should not be forgotten."

My gratitude, therefore, also goes to all those journalists who risk everything to get the story to all of us, comfy and cozy, watching our big-screen TVs, reading our internet stories, getting the latest updates on all the world's hot spots.

And now the other reason that I am writing all of this today -- I knew that I simply could not write it on September 11, hence two days out.  That day still carries so much weight of symbolism with it.  I would not be able to put fingers on keyboard for the tears in my eyes.  Maybe someday in my lifetime that day on the calendar will be far enough removed from 2001 to let me forget the images of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and that field in Pennsylvania.  Probably not -- I still remember where I was when Kennedy was shot.