19. Why I won't be there.

Saipan blogger has a post inviting, encouraging everyone to turn out alongside the road to the airport on Saturday afternoon as the body of Marine Lance Corporal Emul is brought home for burial. I won't be there.

I'll pray for Marine Lance Corporal Emul, but I won't be there to salute his military life.

I think the war in Iraq is wrong. His death is a waste of God-given life--it's not honorable, it's not heroic. It's sinful.

Until we start getting the message to our sons and daughters in the CNMI that they have other options, better options, besides participating in the war machine, we will continue to mourn the useless death of young, beautiful people. Until we take a moral stand against war and the political processes that produce it, we will be responsible for the deaths of our young men and women.

I won't be there, because I don't want anyone to think I support the war, support the military mentality that honors death more than life.

I won't be there in protest against the war. I won't be there in protest against the military that knows only how to fight and not how to create peace. I won't be there in protest against the politicians and military men and women that support hurting people in distant lands because of some amorphous "American" interest that only puts money in the pockets of warmongers.

I won't be there, but I'll pray for Marine Lance Corporal Emul, and for all the nameless people he might have killed in this senseless war.