On the fourth of July as we celebrate our freedom which has cost so many so much. You should make some time today or in the next few days to pick up the movie Taking Chance.
It is the simple story of the delivery of a fallen soldier's body from the Iraq war being returned to his family and the escort who makes that journey.
It is a true story based on Col. Michael Strobl played by Kevin Bacon escorting the body of fallen Marine Chance Phelps from Delaware to Wyoming. The movie is beautiful, heart wrenching, enlightening and somber. It is filled with honor and dignity. It reminds us that real people are dying, sons and daughters, and friends of real people. You will find yourself with tears in your eyes at many places in this movie.
It takes us beyond the pictures we see of fallen soldiers and confronts us with the process of what happens from start to finish when a soldier dies. Watching it as a father was difficult but necessary for there are many fathers who have laid their sons and daughters on the altar of freedom.
Happy fourth everyone, never forget what was paid to get us here.
mark
Interesting that our former administation would not allow any coverage of the repatriation of remains of fallen soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan, while the current administration is o.k. with that. I guess it lessened the impact if we could't see the caskets coming off the planes. As Stalin said- "one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic". I still wonder on this July 4th- have we become the nation that our forefathers wanted us to be?
Posted by: Spencer Jackson | July 04, 2009 at 07:52 PM
Incredible movie. Great stories in the bonus features as well.
Posted by: ben kendrew | July 30, 2009 at 12:32 AM
If we paid attention only to losing our own nationals, then how short sighted is that?
I'm pretty sure that those that sign up who don't need to for any other benefit other than to serve the common good of all people and our country understand that if it costs use some of our people for the better of many more, then that's okay.
For anyone who says, "If you're for war, why don't you put on a uniform," and I'd have a few responses:
1) Those people signed up so that I could have this opinion, along with other freedoms.
2) I love my country and I love this world, but I'd rather not kill or be killed for it.
3) Apparently people see benefits however alturistic and patriotic or simply beneficial to serving this country. My services aren't needed.
4) If by some odd reason some scumbags end up on our soil, then you teach me and train me how to send those enemies back to Kingdom Come or where they came from.
5) I'm really not for war, I'm for what is right and necessary. Who really likes war? It costs too much in life, limb, and materials.
As for if we've become what the founders expected... probably not exactly, but maybe there are pieces of it somewhere in our culture.
As for the movie itself, I hope to eventually have thoughts on it based on watching it for itself. I do have to say that from the trailer that it seems to be very patroitic and a great way to say "Thank you" to the men and women who have give their lives for the good that is in this country, despite all that seems to be wrong, and part of that is perception.
Unfortunately, perception is the given reality, whether it is true or not.
On goodness, a teenager who was eventually killed for something they believed once said (or I think whether she wrote it, "Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart." (Anne Frank)
Maybe not everyone... but there is the idea known as America, and enough good worth keeping, and to those who keep the light burning for us and others, we give thanks, and even more thanks to God for our blessings such as this.
Posted by: Alexander Wilhelmsen | August 02, 2009 at 04:41 AM