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[url=http://www.newsobserver.com/135/story/554580.html]No bugles for this soldier's death
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WHY ALL THE SECRECY?
It hurts to read of the deaths of American soldiers. They are a shining part of our national family, and we are lessened by their loss.
So we assuage our private grief with public ceremony. We enshroud our dark pain with bright flags. We expect politicians to speak for us all when they offer comfort to the family.
But what if a soldier dies and no one notices? Does that military life and death have meaning to anyone except family and friends?
"When our son died, none of the politicians showed up for his funeral," Bob Pesta of Cary said. "They knew they would get no public attention. Our son isn't accounted for in the honor roll of the 3,000-plus soldiers who have died in the war."
Bob and Joan Pesta's son Chris died at Fort Bragg last year. The Army told the family he died from a previously undiagnosed heart condition made worse by the painkillers Army doctors had prescribed for a back injury.
"When they announce how many soldiers have died in Iraq, they never say how many have died here," Bob Pesta said. "And the ones who die here don't get the same treatment as soldiers who died in Iraq.
"That's not fair. They were volunteers, too."
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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."
Honore de Balzac
"Democrats work to help people who need help.
That other party, they work for people who don't need help.
That's all there is to it."
~Harry S. Truman
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