The Median Sib

Here’s a tidbit of news you won’t see on CNN or ABC.  The Rocky Mountain News reported on a welcoming ceremony at Fort Carson for troops who had arrived home after another tour of duty in Iraq.

The mayor of Tal Afar, Najim Al Jibouri, praised the United States troops for saving his city from almost certain ruin.

“Are you truly my friends?” he asked through a translator. “Yes. I walk a happier man because you are my friends. You are the world to me. I smell the sweet perfume that emanates from your flower of your strength, honor and greatness in every corner of Tal Afar. The nightmares of terror fled when the lion of your bravery entered our city.”  

The mayor said afterward through a translator that he worried about fading support for the war in Iraq and urged Americans to remember what it was like before U.S. forces arrived.

“One year ago today, not even a bird used to be inside the city of Tal Afar because of all the shooting that happened continuously,” he said. “All of the schools were closed and all the government facilities were closed completely. Killing and murdering was allowed - even of the children.”

It’s difficult for me to reconcile stories such as this with all the anti-war rhetoric found in the MSM.  Our soldiers are risking their lives daily in order to help people who have been terrorized their entire lives to gain control over their own lives.  Our newspapers and television networks should be praising their efforts and highlighting the good they’re doing every day.

That title quote is one of the most poetic statements I’ve ever heard.

Hat Tip to Dr. Sanity for first mentioning the Rocky Mountain News article above.

The first time I met Paw-Paw was back in 1967 during the fall quarter of my freshman year in college.  I can still remember exactly where I was sitting with some friends in the grill at school when Paw-Paw came up to the table, introduced himself and started talking to us.  There was an immediate attraction.  He had a confidence and sense of humor that I loved.  He told me later that when he first saw me across the room, he told his friends that he was going to meet me and ask me out.

The next morning, he “just happened” to come through the cafeteria breakfast line where I was working.  We soon had our first date, started “going steady” a couple months later, and we became engaged in December 1968.  When he kissed me the first time, we were standing on the sidewalk outside my dorm.  I was standing on the edge of the sidewalk, and when he kissed me, I lost my balance and he had to catch me.  We always joked that he literally swept me off my feet with that first kiss.

We were married in 1969, our daughter was born in 1974 and our son in 1978.  After 28 years of marriage, we divorced in 1997.  If we hadn’t divorced we’d be celebrating our 37th anniversary in a couple weeks.  We plan to remarry soon. 

Since PawPaw and I have been back together the past year, I’ve had friends ask me if I wish I had given it another chance back in 1997 - do I wish that we had tried harder.  That’s a tough question because back then I could only make the decision that seemed right at the time.  In retrospect it’s easy to say, “Sure - we should have tried harder - we could have done things differently.”  The years of being divorced were both good and bad.  I think we both learned and grew a lot through the experience.  We both had other relationships and became involved in groups and activities that we never would have known otherwise.  It definitely expanded our world.  But, on the negative side, we lost those years of being together.  We can’t go back and change things.  We can only move forward and hopefully learn from the past.