The New York Times each day publishes the names of the soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. I read them each day and say a prayer for them. It is the least I can do for those who have died to keep me and my family safe.
The names and home towns reveal a lot: a lot if Hispanic names, and most are from small towns. One in particular struck me:
YAZZIE, Alejandro J. 23. Lane Cpl., Marines; Rock Point, Ariz.: First Marine Division.
A Navajo, dying to defend the United States.
At the Pueblo Indian Center in Albuquerque there is a bronze statue of Indians as soldiers in the U. S. Army. All these young Indians had left after their land was stolen from them was their courage and blood, which they offered to their conquerors in order to survive. Sometimes it’s hard to look a Native American in the face after what we Europeans have done to them.
I wish that more Catholics realized what you do about the soldiers in Afghanistan and Iran, Leon, and abandon these nonsensical, faddish paeons to “peace and justice,” and pacifism.