The Sad Irony of War

I am a headline reader. I also follow the war we are waging pretty closely. I am a supporter for the current war. Why? Basically, if we don't fight it, we will have Hamas and Osama Bin Laden blowing up buildings and fighting their war on our soil. No thanks.

Two sad, yet honoring, headlines caught my eye this weekend. The irony of the two is almost uncanny.

Dith Pran

First, the death of Dith Pran. He died over the weekend of pancreatic cancer. For anyone who is much younger than me, you may not know who this incredibly brave and amazing man was. He was a Cambodia man who survived the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge. One step better, he coined the term "Killing Fields". Again, if you are much younger than me (I was born when the Vietnam war was at it's peak), you may not even know what that means.

Quick summarizing history. When America pulled out of the Vietnam war, the war really wasn't over. Pol Pot, a sick dictator, pulled his army in the chaos of an unstable country, the Khmer Rouge, into Cambodia and started killing anyone who might disagree with his regime. He wanted the country to go back to it's original agrarian society. So if you were educated at all, you were killed. If you appeared educated, you were systematically killed. If you wore eyeglasses and looked educated, you were killed. It was horrifying.

As America was pulling out, Dith Pran was an interpreter for New York Times journalist, Sydney Schanberg. The Americans could pull out, Dith could not. Dith survived four concentration type of camps and was found by his good friend, Sydney Schanberg, four years later. The movie "The Killing Fields" is based upon his story. I think all of us need to see this movie, because it speaks to the war situation we are in today, and I'll wrap this post up with that.

Click here for a mini clip of his last interview from his death bed. It is very nicely done.

You can't talk about Dith Pran without talking about Haing Ngor. The incredibly special thing about that movie is the actor who portrayed Dith Pran was also a survivor of the Killing Fields-- Haing Ngor. Haing was an educated doctor in Cambodia, and he also survived the Killing Fields. If you watch the movie closely, you will notice he is missing a pinky finger. He lost that while being tortured. He was an educated medical doctor that watched his wife die during childbirth in a concentration camp. She was in labor and needed a C-section. But if he performed it on her, in appalling conditions, he would have revealed he was a doctor and he would have lost his life as well. Haing survived the killing fields by pretending to be a farmer and acting uneducated.

Mr. Ngor, an untrained actor, won an Oscar for his performance. I think he was incredibly brave for agreeing to act in this movie. I am sure he ran into a few ghosts from his experience doing it.

Haing S. Ngor

Tragically, Mr. Ngor was murdered outside of his apartment in Los Angeles in 1996. There has been all kinds of speculation as to whether that was a botched robbery all the way to some kind of conspiracy. One mystery surrounding his death, he had a locket with his deceased wife's picture. He carried it under his clothing out of sight. That locket has never been recovered from the crime. Tragic. He could survive the Killing Fields of Pol Pot, but not the streets of America.

Dith Pran said of Haing Ngor, "He is like a twin with me...He is like a co-messenger and right now I am alone." (CNN, February 27, 1996)

I honor these two men for keeping the tragedy of the Khmer Rouge alive. We will repeat history if we don't learn from it. Please take a moment and put "The Killing Fields" on the list of movies you need to see.

What else was on the news this weekend? Can we remember the name Keith Matthew Maupin? He is the young 20 year old man who was caught in the beginning of the current war on terror. Five years ago, that was when Bin Laden would kidnap anyone who looked American and put horrifying videos of them on the web. There was a video put out on the web of Mr. Maupin surrounded by a lot of masked men with guns. He was never heard from or about since.

Until this weekend. It is confirmed, his remains have been found. Click here for the article on that. I have been praying and hoping this young man would come home walking on two feet. He will be brought home carried by his comrades. I am so thankful he has been found, but wish it could have been different.

Keith Matthew Maupin

Why are these stories connected? I will keep it simple. Once America pulled out from Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge was ready to pull in it's regime and the killing fields began and lasted for four years. Two million citizens of Cambodia (a country of seven million at the time) were executed. If we pull out right now, on the drop of a dime, from Iraq, I believe and know that Muqtada al-Sadr is just waiting to make sure anyone who objects to his planned regime isn't heard. His brutality during this war should only warn us as to what he is capable of after the war. And that is on his own soil. I am sure airplanes in buildings on American soil seem like nothing to him. Remember, we will repeat history if we don't learn from it.

I dedicate this post to these three men. They have all shown their American patriotism in brave and amazing ways--and even with their life. They have also fought for the freedoms and lives of others in the face of horror. They have fought against some of the world's worst dictator's, and stood for human rights, not just American rights. They stood against evil and won. I honor them.

UPDATE: A good friend of mine who is an avid reader of my blog reminded me of something I have meant to post for a long time. There is a great website out there that will take your special message that you submit to them for a soldier of ours overseas, and deliver it to them. It is absolutely free, takes very little time, and definitely gives our guys and gals the morale boost they need. Here is the website: www.letssaythanks.com. Please take a moment and fill one out today, and make it part of your weekly routine to send a few more. What a blessing to our troops!

Easter Leftovers

You ever wondered what to do with the leftover candy? In our house, again, we have a child who doesn't like chocolate. Even if we don't buy any, we end up with a lot of it anyway. One thing I do is hang onto until Halloween and hand it out to the 19 year old trick or treater who comes to my door. Or you can follow my recipe and have a yummy treat.

The chopping. Again, I really recommend your Pampered Chef chopper for this. F from the Gorra's blog has a recent post about her love of her chopper.

Oatmeal Chip Cookies

2 C all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 Tablespoon of baking soda
1 C sugar
1 C packed brown sugar
2 stick of butter softened
2 eggs
1 C quick cooking oatmeal
1 C chopped nuts (omit if desired, I do!)
1 C chocolate chips
(or in this case, chopped up Easter chocolate)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine all ingredients except last three. Blend well with a mixer. Stir in last three ingredients and mix thoroughly. Chill dough (I didn't today, they seem fine.) Roll in to 1 inch balls and place on a greased cookie sheet; flatten balls slightly. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Oddest Book Title Award Goes to.......drum roll PLEASE!

Seriously, I love this. I didn't know there was an annual award for the oddest book title. But this year's recipient resonates with me.

I am an almost 40 year old woman. I have seen a lot of things in my lifetime. I have seen a lot of my friends over the years make a lot of mistakes in relationships. Before I was married, I made a lot of mistakes in relationships.

This afternoon--great example. I am at a candle party. The hostess's 20 year old daughter is there an talking to her friends about how she is two months pregnant, and her unemployed, high school dropout boyfriend is freaking out. These are not poor people, we are in a very very nice home and her parents do very well. Why she chose him to be her boyfriend, I don't know. He has pressured her to have an abortion. What is so interesting, no one ever said the word abortion. She said things like, "He wants me to, well, you know. He's not ready." Currently, they are not speaking. I am sure he is wondering what kind of child support he will be paying and he is 20 years old.

In my lifetime, the family story I saw this afternoon has been played over and over again. In my mind, I am listening, not saying a thing because it's not my place, but the title to this year's recipient of the Oddest Book Title is screaming in my ears.

The award goes to "If You Want Closure in Your Relationships, Start With Your Legs" written by the pseudonymous author Big Boom. Click here for the headline.

The title says it all.

What We Did for Our Easter Break

We spent several days at my inlaws home for a relaxing Easter break. The kids were running around like whirling dervishes because they had their cousin to play with. We adult had fun watching and capturing it all on film. Easter egg hunting at church.

The spoils of the Easter egg hunt.

Easter egg hunting outside at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Easter egg hunts in the Pacific Northwest are never warm and dry. They are wet, cold and drizzly. Hence, the raincoats and a grumpy two year old. I asked him to smile, and he responded, "I can't." He didn't like wearing the rubber boots.

Forget the spoils of the baskets, having a cousin to play flashlights with was much more fun. Grandpa needs to buy more batteries, but that is beside the point.

JM got a late birthday present of these fun moon shoes. They are actually quite fun as you can see by the video. I just think videos like this are funny because at the end, first he's there, then he's gone.

Then we had the two preschoolers trying to get in on that action, and it was funny watching them team up and get into all sorts of mischief. BH doesn't have socks on, she can't figure out the velcro, but boy, they worked on it for awhile.

Now let me set up the final video. These two were just going round and round and round for three days straight. They loved playing with each other, and it was non stop. On Monday morning, suddenly BH runs into the room, pulls his shirt collar down as far as he can and announces, "I am Superman!" We were laughing pretty hard. It was also quite spontaneous. We are more of a Spiderman kind of superhero in our house. We don't watch Superman or anything, so for him to do this, he picked it up from some little reference long ago, and just used it.

Anyway, because kids tend to repeat fun things over and over, I tried to get him to do it again. It didn't work. All I got was video of kids whizzing by and being silly. It was pretty hilarious.

Horton Hears Something....

I don't know what to do with myself. I have been inside of a movie theatre twice this week. It might be when my kids are in junior high before that happens again.

We saw the very cute "Horton Hears a Who" with the kids. Obviously, it is rated G and is geared for the kids. I know that seems obvious, but there are some G movies out there right now that I won't take my kids to. The bumbling character of Horton left my kids in giggles.

I will tell you right now, there is a slur in reference to homeschooling that is quite derogatory in the beginning. I am not a homeschooling mom yet, but it made me bristle. It is the continued perpetuation of homeschoolers being from extremist, separatist, families because the parents don't want their kids being exposed to those outside heathens. It is one statement, but it made that impression on me. And it also left me hesitant to say it was a great movie. Moviemakers know exactly what they are doing when they write lines and make scenes. The scene where this happened could have been done so many different ways to get the same point across. Instead, just like how I bristle when adoption is portrayed poorly, the moviemakers decide to not show the truth but perpetuate the lie. Disappointing.

It was cute though. Jim Carrey and Steve Carell are the main characters voices and for once, Jim Carrey doesn't over do it. This movie doesn't suddenly become "Jim Carrey Hears a Who".

It is done by the same people who made "Ice Age". Honestly, I thought the story line of "Ice Age" was completely flat and not engaging to kids. Well, the screenplay to this one was already done in the story from Dr. Seuss, and it was very nicely done. The jungle scenes are absolutely rich and pleasing to the eye. The kids, who are friends of Horton, are completely cute. The Whoville people are the typical Dr. Seuss quirky Dr. Seuss characters. The Whoville story line was very nice in the ending in terms of family bonding, and that was nice and appreciated.