An Easter Prayer


Tomorrow begins Easter; for many it’s a time to take stock, a time for new beginnings.

Tomorrow, it’s likely that many of us will see their friends and family and sit down to an enjoyable meal, watch the game or just spend time with the grand-kids.
We are a wonderful nation with a wonderful tradition in that respect.

But it also just comes on the anniversary of the fifth year of the war.
This week,it is also likely that we will surpass 4,000 deaths….
So, perhaps instead of a time for celebration and rebirth, perhaps many of us would do well if we spent the time in introspection.

Oddly enough, few of us have been directly touched by the war; most of the people I know go from day to day without even giving the war a thought.
But Easter, of all occasions should evoke some thoughts about others which most of us seemingly rarely do.

Although fewer than 1% of the population has become involved through family or friends and even fewer have been called upon to serve their country, one becomes acutely aware of the impact of this war on military personnel if all they do is visit a shopping center near an active military base.

Last week, some engaged citizens stood outside Dover Air Force Base, the location of the National Mortuary to stand in protest to the War. It was a grand and needed gesture.
This week, others will stand a silent vigil.

We see the families of the young troopers at the local stores and as I am, many are tempted to ask “Is everything alright?” “How are you coming along?” We many not verbalize these questions but the message clearly comes through our eyes.
When I wear my Veterans cap, others come up to me and say “thank you” for what you’ve done.

People do care even though they may not say or do anything.
It has been a long war. And many are tired of the death and destruction not only of our own but the poor innocents caught up in this nightmare.

Longer than the War that began with the invasion of North Africa and landings on the beaches of France on D Day…..longer than the time it took hundreds of thousands of men in the Pacific to land and vanquish the enemy on foreign beaches runs this war that seems to go on endlessly as if there is no end in sight..
.
It is hard to imagine that!
Not as long as Vietnam perhaps, but long enough.
And after that war, my friends came up and quietly slipped back into society.
You were on patrol one minute and standing on the unemployment lines back in the States the next. No wonder most couldn’t adjust.
We hope that these young boys and girls will come home and be able to put their experiences behind them. It will not be easy and experience dictates that most have not been able to readjust without lot’s and lot’s of time in recuperation.

On this Holiday eve, I pray that tomorrow may see some miracle or that Bush will get a message from all of those heavenly contacts he has to end this war without having to have a macho victory that means so little in real terms.

I pray that we can walk away from this cancer that has eaten us alive and separated friends and family for so many years.

We need to put this behind us if we are ever to have our government back again.

I hope and pray for these things on a typical night when prayers are said to be heard a little clearer than they might be on an ordinary night.

And I thank God for the young and those who embrace this idea and humbly want new beginnings for all people….

Hopefully, one can pray that with the Resurrection of Jesus, there will be a resurrection of the American spirit and a resurgence of hope that before the next Easter rolls around that Iraq will be a memory from the past.

This is what I hope and pray for this Easter.

Les Aaron