Sunday, Apr. 22, 2007 6:55 p.m.

what people don't want to know about the war.

see, the thing about living in the entertainment capital of the world is that everyone here seems to think they can control what everyone else in the world thinks.

and the sad thing is, for the most part, they actually can.

popular belief in this city eventually trickles into film, and tv, and the songs on the radio, etc. and after awhile of seeing and hearing "right and wrong", the general public begins to believe it too...and before you know it - this city has told the world what to think.

and I hate living here because of that.

I especially hate it because of the war. I hate that people have anti-war rallies. I hate that people shun and scrutinize certain news stations...and then go and blindly agree with others, just because they think they are 'liberal' and therefore true.

I hate that anybody believes anything that didn't come from firsthand knowledge.

my cousin is in the navy. so is her boyfriend. we hung out with them last night. she's been lucky and served her time in the states; he's been deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan.

he�s 25. and has a purple heart. we sat at starbucks last night, held in rapt attention for near to an hour, as he told stories of his time over there.

he talked about the fun times, about the boredom and their invented distractions to pass the time. he talked about the afghan kids, about the nicknames they had for the various soldiers. he told about the first election they had and how the U.S. troops defended the polling places so they could safety vote and not be shot in the process of getting there. he talked about his amazement that these people were willing to risk their lives JUST TO VOTE, while so many Americans could care less about their right to do so.

he talked about coming home and seeing children yelling at their moms because they wanted the new playstation.

he was candid; he spoke without restraint, joking and making fun of himself and his comrades. he talked about his vivid dreams on malaria medication, not having running water, playing volleyball with the locals.

he talked about the day his humvee was blown up. how one of the other three lost his leg, while the other two had theirs severely mangled. he talked about how, as the medic, he used a gun to splint their leg and pull them to safety.

the was no heroism in his tale. it was just honest. he joked about the conversation they were having the moments before the explosions: about what they would do if their balls were ever blown off.

he spoke of the �bad guys� and the training video they made of his explosion. he�d seen it, a long time ago, while it was briefly posted on youtube before being removed. he saw himself, from their view, being flown out of the truck and then running to check on the others. he could hear the cell phone in the �bad guy�s� hand set the bomb off.

I would love to see this video.

he talked about how America isn�t getting to see the good they are doing over there � and that everyone here just wants the negative, that they want to hate the war.

people came and went at the tables on either side of us. secretly I hoped that some of them were eavesdropping on our conversation. I hoped that some of them would stop and think...and realize that there is so much going on in the world.

yes, Virginia Tech was last week. 32 people were killed. it is sad. everytime people die and we are reminded of our futility, it is sad.

but people are dying ALL OVER THE WORLD, EVERY SINGLE SECOND. it may sound awful to say this, but we cannot care and mourn over every single one of them.

I think it�s a sad state of this country that we will no doubt immortalize these 32 people who died at Virginia Tech...yet we tend to view each soldier that dies oversees as one more thing to blame on the government. we forget that these people over there are VOLUNTARILY fighting, for us. they deserve more honor and immortalization than the
Virginia Tech victims.

I guess I just wish people would stop being the way they are. it makes me sad that people don�t think to think for themselves.

I wish I didn�t live in such a liberal place. it really frustrates me sometimes.

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