A Show of Support

A fantastic, relaxing weekend of enjoying (and effectively ignoring) the supposed anniversary of Jesus' birth ended with the horrible news out of southeast Asia. Thankfully, I breathed a sigh of relief late last night after receiving this brief but reassuring email from my friend Seth, currently serving in the Peace Corps in Thailand:

"I am alive. Though I was at the beach when it happened, I was on the east coast of Thailand and the tidal waves hit in the south on the west."

How fucking sad and scary, this whole nightmare. Those who know me well are aware of my fascination with earthquakes and (having lived to tell about the '94 Northridge quake) my enduring dread of them. This news has dominated my thoughts over the past 24 hours and I encourage everyone to donate to Oxfam or the Red Cross.

The intense earthquake that hit L.A. almost 11 years ago measured 6.8 on the Richter scale and caused such violent shaking it felt as though our house would be ripped entirely from its foundation and flung into space. Saturday's quake measured 9.0, a full 22 TIMES STRONGER than our meager L.A. shaker. If you could see the extensive damage done to my parents' house during a 6.8, you would shudder at the thought of what a 9.0 could potentially inflict. I'm so sorry for all those people whose lives have been devastated by this disaster.

Another preoccupation of mine over the weekend was the ever-growing predicament in Iraq and those unfortunate soldiers forced to spend the holiday in a war zone, frightened and apart from their loved ones. My friend Aviva--whose husband, Craig, I've mentioned, is serving in the Marines overseas--recently sent me a wonderful Washington Post piece by Frank Schaeffer, all the more relevant this time of year (especially in light of Donald Rumsfeld's despicable, criminal missteps). Following is a lengthy but important excerpt:

Caring for Those Left Behind

"When an American in a military uniform is killed his or her family receives a one-time death gratuity of $12,000. The surviving family may also qualify for the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP), which is paid up to age 62 or until the spouse remarries. The SBP benefit amounts to 55% of the soldier's retirement pay, pay that is already so low it qualifies many military families for food stamps. These "benefits" are contingent on fulfilling many petty regulations.

A just-released study by the Rand Corp. found that families of civilians killed in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, received on average $3.1 million in government and charitable compensation. The families of the firefighters and cops who died received even more; their average compensation was $4.2 million.

Our soldiers are being killed on a daily basis, but most of us seem to feel little personal connection with them. If we did, their widows and families would be better compensated. Our idea of "supporting the troops" is to stick magnetic yellow ribbons on our cars.

Let's strip away our yellow-ribbon sentimentality for a moment and admit the truth: We treat our military like second-class citizens. I'm glad the Sept. 11 families were generously compensated, but it's time to ask why the family of someone who has done no more for his country than show up at a stock trading office on the wrong day should receive hundreds of times as much compensation as the family of a soldier who volunteered to leave his wife and child to defend the rest of us.

Our politicians seem better able to identify with the needs of stock traders' widows (not to mention the businesses and airlines that were also generously compensated) than with the needs of the families of our soldiers. This is a scandal."

Truer words never spoken. Are you even pretending to listen, Dubya and Rumsfeld? Visiting troops for a brief photo opportunity designed to improve your reputation does NOT make up for the appalling disservice you've done them since deciding to invade Iraq (a decision made long before Sept. 11, for those naive enough to still believe we invaded in our own defense).

The sentiment was summed up perfectly in another excellent article that recently grabbed my attention. Penned by a military veteran, the piece emphasized quite eloquently that the well-intentioned phrase "Support our troops" means NOTHING if not followed by "Bring them home."

Posted by ayelet at December 27, 2004 02:34 PM | TrackBack