Thank You for Our Freedom!

The following is a blog entry written on Aug. 30, 2008, by Army Specialist Stephen Fortunato, who was killed October 14, 2008 in Afghanistan when the vehicle he was riding in was blown up by an improvised explosive device. This entry was forwarded to the Boston Globe by his mother, Elizabeth “Betty” Crawford.

If I may …
I'd like to say something....Just to get it out there so it is clear.To all the pampered and protected Americans who feel it is their duty to inform me that I am not fighting for their freedom, and that i am a pawn in Bush's agenda of greed and oil acquisition: Noted, and [expletive deleted] You.

I am not a robot. i am not blind or ignorant to the state of the world or the implications of the "war on terrorism." i know that our leaders have made mistakes in the handling of a very sensitive situation, but do not for one second think that you can make me lose faith in what we, meaning America's sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers in uniform are doing.

I am doing my part in fighting a very real enemy of the United States, i.e. Taliban, Al Qaida, and various other radical sects of Islam that have declared war on our way of life. Unless you believe the events of 9/11 were the result of a government conspiracy, which by the way would make you a MORON, there is no reasonable argument you can make against there being a true and dangerous threat that needs to be dealt with. i don't care if there are corporations leaching off the war effort to make money, and i don't care if you don't think our freedom within America's borders is actually at stake. i just want to kill those who would harm my family and friends. it is that simple. Even if this is just a war for profit or to assert America's power, so what? Someone has to be on top and I want it to be us. There's nothing wrong with wishing prosperity for your side.

I am a proud American. i believe that my country allows me to live my life more or less however i want to, and believe me, i have seen what the alternative of that looks like. i also believe that our big scary government does way more than it has to to help complete [expletive deleted]-ups get back on their feet, a stark comparison to places where leaders just line their own pockets with gold while allowing the people who gave them their power and privilage to starve. I have chosen my corner. I back my country, and am proud to defend it against aggressors. Also, if you dare accuse us of being inhumane, or overly aggressive because we have rolled into someone else's country and blown some [expletive deleted] up and shot some people, let me remind you of just how inhumane we COULD be in defending ourselves. Let me remind you that we have a warhead that drops multiple bomblets from the stratosphere which upon impact, would turn all the sand in Iraq to glass, and reduce every living thing there to dust. Do we use it? No. Instead we use the most humane weapon ever devised: the American soldier. We send our bravest (and perhaps admitably craziest) men and women into enemy territory, into harms way, to root out those whom we are after and do our best to leave innocent lives unscathed.

...One last thing...a proposal. i know it has been stated time and time again but i just think it is worthy of reiteration. If you find yourself completely disgusted with the way America is being ran, and how we handle things on the global stage, you can leave. Isn't that amazing? No one will stop you! If you are an anarchist, there are places you can go where there is no government to tell you anything. That's right...you are left solely to your own devices and you can handle the men who show up at your door with AKs in any way that you see fit. Just don't try good old American debate tactics on them because you will most likely end up bound and blind-folded, to have your head chopped off on the internet so your parents can see it. However if you insist on staying here and taking advantage of privilages such as free speach and WIC, keep the counter-productive [expletive deleted] to a minimum while the grown ups figure out how to handle this god-awful mess in the middle east.

....In Translation

This blog is all about my new fav tv show "Lost". I vaguely remember there being a lot of hype about it when it first came out, but I really had no interest in a show about people being stranded on an island. So about a month ago I tuned in to the Sci-Fi channel to watch Star Trek. Instead there was some other show, it started out with a plane crash and even though I didn't know anything about the show I was able to guess in the first couple minutes that it was the show Lost. There was nothing else on tv so I just left it play in the background while I surfed the internet or organized my mp3's or some other such thing.I got hooked about 10 minutes in and I haven't missed a minute since, making sure I either tuned in or set the DVD-R every Monday since.

I love shows with diverse characters, ones that I can relate to regardless of who they are. What is really interesting about this show is a lot of the characters have some kind of connection before the plane crash, and they don't even realize it. I really like the diversity, just when you start to dislike a character, they show you their background and you somehow can relate where they are coming from. It’s a similar style to my favorite author Chuck Palahniuk, just without all the super twisted characters.

My favorite character is John Locke. He is a man of faith, even if his faith isn't always clear. The show deals a lot with karma and destiny. After watching the show you realize that the characters are not just lost on the island, they are lost in their life, searching for something, and they are getting a second chance at starting a new life. Fate has thrown them together to help each other out.

The show reminds me of change, feeling lost, karma and all the stuff I have learned over the last few years. Its interesting how some of the things from the show stand out to some of the things I have thought or even some recent conversations I have had.

One particular quote from the show got me thinking about a conversation I have had recently and even though this won't mean anything to most people, it got me thinking.
John Locke is frustrated and is thinking about stopping to ‘push the button’. He says how he feels like a “rat in a maze without any cheese”. Mr. Eko tells him that “We do it because we believe we are meant to”.


"Are you pondering what I'm pondering, Pinky?"