Hologram Thoughts

The group, ten or more of us, walked in silence under the beech trees. The sun was low in the sky and the shadows where coming at strange angles, making it look like there was something moving just out of my eyesight. I was in the middle, watching those in front while trying to keep the few behind me up with us, they kept trying to stop; they were too tired now.

I knew we had to keep going, I knew we could not stay the night in the woods. No shelter, no where to put your back and know you were safe from at least on direction.

“I have to stop here, this is where I stop,” she said leaning against a sapling.

“Just a little further, out of the woods and we find somewhere to sleep. I promise.” I lied.

My clothes where wool and cotton, they hung from my frame loosely and chafed my skin from the sweat and heat. The boots on my feet were tight, but only because my feet had swollen after days on the trail. Sweat poured down my face, off my nose. My hair, long and auburn, was tied in a tail and blew easy in the breeze.

I stopped and told the group to listen. Dogs barking in the distance. Hounds, closing in and coming fast – nothing left to do now but run.

***

We run into a train station. The walls are white washed and dusty, doors are mostly red paint and shut, but a few seem to sway with unseen hands opening them to see who we are.

One of the women bolts for a doorway, screaming that she has to find him. Her son has died on the trail and she cannot seem to remember that he is dead and buried. I race to the doorway that she went in, but she is not there, I can see down the hall a long way, further than she could have covered even at a run, but it is empty now, she is gone.

I turn, I hear a pounding footfall, I begin to pass out and just as I close my eyes I see her son, standing in an open loading dock.

“Evil,” I scream.

***

“Evil,” I screamed as my wife woke me this morning in the darkness.

My friend, Wonderlane, is on retreat in Nepal right now and will be there for a while to come. We have shared a few emails back and forth, but last night she sent me this link to her photos.

http://www.flickrleech.net/user/wonderlane

The colors, the sites and the content are all amazing. I feel great just looking at them.

Thank you Wonderlane!

During the late news last night they reported that the US is spending about two billion dollars a month on the war against terror. I sat there for a moment and then I thought about it… $2,000,000,000.00 a month; what could be done with that? Could we cure all cancer? Could we end hunger, poverty or illiteracy with this kind of money?

According to the National Priorities Project we have spent $467 billion to date. Staggering. This war, which began on March 30, 2003 and continues today, is quickly becoming the costliest war in American history. In contrast World War II cost the United States $288 billion in 1945 dollars. That is over three trillion dollars, it would look like this; $3,189,752,033,348.

OK, so we haven’t yet spent anywhere near what we did on WWII, right? For just a moment remember that WWII was a multi-theater war with almost every nation caught in the conflict, fought in the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, all across Europe, Asia and northern Africa too. (Did I leave anything out?) The war on terror, waged primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan so far, has been waged for the most part by Americans.

Yes, I know; we have allies there with us. Sorta. The smart ones bailed as soon as they could. The WMD debacle squandered trust and friendship all across the world when it comes to international relations. The ones that are left are there at their own political peril. What began as a true coalition has since become the US and her closest allies; mainly other British colonies as it were.

I know I don’t normally write about my political views, but why is it OK for this war to continue? Why are American’s not in the streets nightly demanding the cessation of all hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan where US men and women are concerned? Is it the old argument that we are there to protect our loved ones back in America? Are they fighting to bring democracy to the region? Is someone waiting in the wings to spring terrorism on us again if we pull out?

Let me state here and now that I am not a pacifist. True, I am no war-hawk, my hands don’t ache for the feel of the M-16, but I still hear the hymn of the United States Marine Corps when I brush my teeth. (Inside joke for other Marines.) I believe there is such a thing as a righteous war, a war that simply must be fought. Sometimes the only course of action that a nation can take is the use of force. But this war is beyond that pale.

Hey, let’s try this: suspend the war for a few months. Take eight or ten billion dollars and set up a hospital somewhere or build a college in Guatemala or something like that. Let’s take that money and feed the homeless in California or build new homes for the twenty-two thousand Americans still living in FEMA housing after Hurricane Katrina.

If that is a complete waste of time, whatever, start shooting again. Something tells me that it won’t be a waste of time or money.

We need to remember that we are all one race of man. We are all worthy of loving-kindness, respect and compassion. How can any of us truly be happy while there are others suffering?