How Many More?

We're having a funeral here in town this week. Funerals are big in my corner of the U.S. It's all part of family and friendship and a sense of caring. This one will be different, though. It'll be held in the local high school football stadium, the stadium at the high school from which he graduated. In 2010.

The young man was a member of my daughter's high school graduating class. He didn't die of natural causes. He didn't die of the usual suspects in death among teens-- an overdose, an accident, or a violent crime. He died a soldier, in Afghanistan. And the community has come together in a show of respect and caring visible on every reader board and electronic sign in the county. I think it's fair to say there is not one person in this county who is not aware of the loss of this young man.

The real tragedy in this is that this isn't an isolated occurrence. Rather, it's both common and international in scope. It's unGodly common. And it affects families throughout the world every single day. As tragic as it is to see the hearts of parents ripped out, it has been become all too usual. As the current war in Afghanistan drags on and after years and years and years and years of war after war, destruction, injury and death, we are saddened but remain resigned to believing that this is how it is and always will be.

As sad as it is to see a young man dead at 20 years of age, his life taken in military service on foreign soil for a cause I don't believe he could even begin to articulate, it is more tragic that we do not believe there is another way to live in this world. Maybe it's time we come to recognize that we're wasting our most precious resources when we allow our young people to die trying to kill others so that we can continue with business as usual or advance some narrow-minded agenda. We hear public outcry against homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and a woman's right to abortion as affronts to God and mankind. And yet, somewhere in this country, we mourn the loss of a young man or woman, brother or sister, husband or wife, mother or father, every single day of the week this war continues. And that's just U.S. lives. I find it hard to believe anyone's deity could embrace and give blessing on such wholesale sacrifice of human life.

Perhaps it's time to raise the age of military service to 55 or 60. Perhaps, in this country, we should require 3 years of military service after retirement and before receiving Social Security benefits. But, until that day arrives, the best we can do is raise the public awareness of not just the tragedy of a young person's death, but of the larger tragedy of continuing a policy of war as a solution to conflict.  Fair to say, throughout history, war has never brought lasting resolution to any conflict. Nothing more than a viaduct for heartache and pain, resentment and retaliation. God bless the war dead, yes. But God help the living.