Forgive Me, Father

The headline on today’s Bangor (Maine) Daily News reads “Mainers Killed in Iraq”. In the story, we learn that two Maine citizens were killed in yesterday’s bomb attack in Mosul and ten others were injured. As far as I know, these were the first casualties suffered by Mainers in Iraq.

Of course, I know that there is nothing special about Mainers dying in Iraq, not when more than a thousand Americans have already died there, tens of thousands been wounded, and god knows how many Iraqis killed and injured. But I live in Maine, and so, as I walked past the newstand in the supermarket, today’s headline shouted out at me particularly loudly, and made it personal.

Responding on television to the bomb attack, President Bush turned his head to the side in his customary childlike gesture, grinned an “aw shucks” smile, and voiced some tired line about “vital for peace”.

I hate this president's demeanor. I know that I should not, that I must not hate any living soul, that it is bad for my mental and physical and spiritual health to do so, even that it is a sin to do so. But I cannot help myself. I hate this president’s off-hand, golly-gee manner when asked about the terrible sacrifices real-life men, women and children, American and Iraqi, are making every day, day after day, night after night, losing their limbs, losing their families and their homes, losing their lives, because of his ill-conceived policies.

God help us all. God forgive us all.