Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Pay It Forward

I've been having some rough days lately. Things haven't been going well for me and I've been dodging someone who likes to be mean the past few days. Between that and some other crap that's been going on with a friend or two, I've been questioning everything I've come to believe about the people closest to me lately. It's been rocky.

Yesterday morning I got up and the first thing I see on Fox news (not 10 minutes after waking up) is the bimbette announcing they had recovered the bodies of PFC Thomas Tucker and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca.


I've watched each and every beheading video since it began, I think Daniel Pearl was the first one I saw. I don't watch them to get off on the gore, I watch them to remind me of who and what we're fighting against. I've developed a shell around me when it comes to this, it tugs hard at my heart every time I am reminded of it and while it doesn't impact me as much as it did in the beginning, it's still something so out of my realm of comprehension.

But this was different. Hearing about these two brave soldiers got to me. Hearing the bimbette say 'barbaric' and 'tortured' got to me. Hard. I think I cried for an hour and every time after that when I would see a picture. Maybe it was because of the day I was already having but this really hit me. So young, so young and so brave. Then I saw a news story about those freaks who seek out military funerals to protest the war and I swear to you I understand what it feels like to be capable of killing your fellow man. Hate Bush all you want, how DARE you take your hatred of the President out on the brave souls who go, of their own free will, into the military to make sure the rest of us lazy asses can continue to live as we are accustomed to.

I cried some more. I moped some more. Then I went over to Cop the Truth to see what my buddy Mike had to say. He had a link to Blonde Sagacity so I went to take a look and there it was.


Soldiers' Angels is an organisation started by a military mother while her son was serving. While he was serving he wrote to her of the many soldiers who receive nothing from home. No mail, packages, support, necessities. She decided this was unacceptable and through her valiant and persistent efforts, Soldiers' Angels was born.

They ask you to commit to a minimum of two letters a month and one package. After you register you are sent the information on a soldier they assign to you. They are merely the middlemen. They ask for no money, only the solid commitment to follow through on sending to your soldier.

It was almost as if I had been sent there by some unseen hand guiding me out of my pity party to a place where I could do something that would actually matter. Put the personal drama on the shelf, Kittyn, and do something. Get off your ass and DO SOMETHING. One person can actually make a difference. Trippy.

I registered and within two hours had received a welcoming email and the information on my soldier. All I can say is he's 101st Airborne and that in itself is amazingly cool. There wasn't very much info in the email and the only thing he said he really liked was hot cocoa.

I looked over the recommended places for baskets, it's not easy to figure out what to send a solider in a faraway place that you don't know. I'm also not independently wealthy. But I did have some money set aside to get that second server. Hrm. Server which is for my benefit or care package that says "I support you" that can make a stranger's day. No contest. No thought required.

I spoke with my silent backer on the server (which was difficult as he's been a serious prick lately), half of the fundage was his and I wanted the ok before I spent it on something else.

I think I did pretty good for the first care package. The next one won't be as large but it was important to me that the first one make a statement. I went with two packages:

They give you the option to double the contents for a discount which I did since it only came with two packets of hot chocolate. I also added a 100 minute AT&T calling card.



This one had a lot of stuff in it but I added some toiletry stuff for good measure.

The second I hit 'submit order' at Giddy Giftbox I felt the most intense rush of good juju. Internal good juju, where it matters the most. It was powerful, it was an orgasm of the mind and soul.

I have no idea how long it will take to be delivered. I have no idea if I'll ever hear anything back from my soldier, they tell you not to expect to hear back. That's fine, I'm not doing this looking for accolades or thanks - I'm doing this because it feels good, because I can and because it's the right thing to do.

I went to sleepaway camp for ten years. Mail call was always the high point of the day. We would all sit around during the break after lunch and wait for whomever it was that picked up the mail that week to bring it. I saw a whole lot of disappointed faces, I watched the flicker of hope fade in the eyes of my fellow campers when their names were never called. If it was that bad at camp, I can't even begin to imagine how it is in Iraq where every day something dangerous and bad happens.

People who are (voluntarily) willing to go to places where the conditions are horrific and the danger is extreme should never have to feel that disappointment. It's sickening enough that troops have to see and hear news stories of people protesting funerals and talking about the troops as if they were the bad guys. Crap like this has got to be countered and I feel like I did my part.

I feel good today. I feel less self-absorbed and I feel like I actually did something significant. Like I reached beyond myself and advanced one baby step closer to my ultimate 'before I die' goal I wrote of while watching the Pope's funeral:

I always say I want to personally touch the lives of 10 people before I die. 10 people. There are 5 million people who slept in the street and endured porta potties right now because one man touched them. It gives me hope (hope from the Pope? Ok, it's late), maybe 10 isn't such an impossible number.

One person can make a difference. I really feel like I did.

Thank you again to Mike and ALa for caring and for getting their blogs out there as information sources and for leading me to a place where I could do some good for someone else who deserves it and for myself who needed it.

1. Going to a soldier’s funeral to protest is pretty low.  That said, this only deepens my sadness about this war.  These two brave soldiers should never have been there.  At the very least, the USA should have committed far more troops to this invasion.

   These two brave men were tortured and killed because Bush was too arrogant to send the proper amount of troops necessary to complete the mission quickly.

   By the way—I like your blog.  I don’t do this often, but this morning I posted an entry about 3 blogs I like; one of them was yours.

   Martian  on  06/21  at  04:44 PM

2. After you talked about writting the soilders on your show a few weeks
   back , I started a care package group at my chruch, So far we have sent 3 off and have had alot of donations. I wish i could help more.

   katkat  on  06/21  at  05:21 PM

3. Thanks for commenting, the both of you.  I was/am more than a little disappointed that more people weren’t affected enough by the post to comment.

   Or maybe no one reads this place, I have no clue.  I’m discouraged.

   Katkat, that’s a beautiful thing you’re doing.  Three packages is a significant number.

   WebKittyn  on  06/22  at  02:03 PM

4. You may never hear anyone say it to you, but it really does make a difference to the troopers on deployment. They need all the support we can give them ;oD

   Mike  on  06/23  at  10:34 PM

5. That is SO awesome! I think I have more fun sending packages then they have getting them…
   I am so glad I could be a bit of help!

   ALa  on  06/24  at  06:49 AM
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