I didn't know Michelle Lang, but she was a reporter for my dad's old paper, the newspaper I grew up with, and I don't know why that stabs so hard but it does.
I mourn all five of the Canadians who died in Afghanistan today, the four soldiers still to be identified, as well as the eight U.S. civilians who died at a forward-operating base in Khost province. We may find out in a day or so that the Americans were innocent service workers, chefs or waiters, perhaps, or maybe hairdressers, like the young woman from New Brunswick -- Vanessa Mead, twenty-five-year-old "combat barber" -- Lang wrote about on her blog and in the Herald just yesterday.
Or we may not find out who those American civilians were, which could be more horribly interesting, but I'm trying not to prejudge.
I don't know whether Michelle, reporter and blogger, will be honoured with the ritual drive along the Autoroute des héros, although if she is, I promise to make it to my local bridge for her and for the soldiers she rides with. I don't know whether she hated and scorned this "mission" as much as I do, but I can imagine the life she should be living still in Calgary, and I sorrow for the loss.
I've been reminded in the last few days of online friends we've lost, a couple of them friends of this blog, beautiful women who were blogging one day and then taken from us the next. For Melanie, Marie Roget, and Michelle, the song that Melanie sent me once when she was in mourning herself:
Annie Lennox, "Every Time We Say Goodbye," by Cole Porter
It's too much, skdadl. It's too much, it's too much this price we are paying. And for what? For what?
Support the troops? Yes.
Let's do. Let's bring them home.
Bring the troops, and the civilians too.
Bring our children home.
"Support our troops" does NOT mean "support our policies".
Bring our children home.
Now.
It's too much, and for what.
It is too much. It's 'way too much.
What matters to most of us is what we see in the background of Annie's video, those lovely scenes of kids utterly trustful in their world, a beautiful young mother delighting in her children -- och, what can I say beyond let it be?
I know. I lose. So far. We gotta keep trying.
"Why bother? Sometimes you ask yourself that question with a note of bitterness. All the best information in the world has not stopped Kandahar from slipping further into chaos. You cannot pretend that journalists have solved any of the problems in southern Afghanistan. Still, you are optimistic by nature. You hope that better understanding of the war will somehow help the situation."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/a-journalists-dark-hours-of-fear-and-raw-nerves/article1415417/
Thank you for the link, Wilf. The rest of us - we can only imagine. In horror.
I'm sure I heard Michelle will be brought home tomorrow, along with the other Soldiers. I don't know why it is being speeded up, but I think it is.
I can't stop the tears right now, tomorrow I will be angry, right now I just grieve for all of us. It is too much and for what?