Never Forget

Red Poppies for Remembrance
Originally uploaded by Arwen Twinkle

In remembrance of all the veterans in my life, past and present - I thank you.

In honor of today I want to share a memory with you all from a military brat who grew up in the Benelux. I shall never forget the day my brother and I - I was 14, so he was 10ish - made a quick run to the local Delhaize supermarket. A tiny, bent, withered old woman came up to us, hugged us both, and said "Thank you". I asked her what she was thanking us for, and she said "Americans saved my life and my family in the War." Then she hugged us again, and left.

It was so powerful - I mean, of course we learned about the Wars in school, but it was detached, from a textbook - easy to read about and then move on. This woman changed that. After this chance meeting we paid closer attention to the land and structures around us and it was everywhere - we were in a part of the world that had been overrun by armies over and over, where many of the forests still held the dead, and where the old people in our neighborhood had been there since the last time it was battled over. It gave us both new eyes - and new respect - for the rest of the time we lived there.

The veterans of the old World Wars are being replaced by veterans of these new World Wars - never forget what they have done for their country and by extension, for you.

A Librarian at War

I found Shelby Monroe while researching a different topic, but I have to mention her here, and what she's doing. Miss Shelby, as she is known, is a librarian embedded with a division in Iraq. (Yes, you read that right.) She decided it was important to tell the daily stories of the soldiers in Iraq, and show pictures of the regular citizens, so she quit her library job and shipped out. Miss Shelby blogs about her experiences, and shares her photos, over at "101 Days with the 101st Airborne" and "Heads Down, Spirits Up!" (subtitled The Adventures of a Restless Librarian in Iraq).

What she's doing takes a huge amount of guts. HUGE. If you've read this for a while, you know I have a military background; IMHO it's one thing for a prepared (or semi-, as the case has been) soldier to go into a battlefield, but it's quite another to quit your quiet life far away from that chaos and willingly put yourself into it, then share the day-to-day realities of that chaos. I'm in awe.

Miss Shelby, thank you.

Thanks On High

Warning: No library-related information is contained in the following post...

Being a military brat, having gone to a DoDDs high school and on to college on an AFROTC gig, I know a lot of folks in the military. Most of them have been involved in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. I recently received a wonderful email from my old friend James (he and I went to the Senior Prom together lo, so many years ago) - after 10,000 combat hours (with no casualties!), he, his Chinook helicopter and his unit left Iraq last week. James will be joining his family back home in Hawaii, and hopefully he can stay there for a while.

Welcome home, James, and bless you.

Random Thoughts du Jour

Today is my Friday, as tomorrow is a work holiday (Rodeo Day... only in Tucson do businesses and schools close for the rodeo). Some of the things bouncing around in my head:

* Drupal ain't so bad after all! I found my Rosetta stone; more coming next week after I've had a chance to implement some of what I learned. (check out The Cherry Hill Company)

* These are just too funny. (found via Caveat Lector)

* LibraryThing users contributed some really cool images for the "10 million books / valentines / presidents book pile contest". Check out the winners! Then go check out the Flickr group for all the participants. (found via the LT Blog)

* Since when did the proper name for something become so offensive? (found via lots of blogs; Jessamyn summed it all up best. Sheesh.)

* This situation is just abhorrent. If you've read this for any length of time, you've probably picked up on the fact that I'm a military brat. My dad was in the Air Force; both my grandfathers were in the Army Air Corps. I went to school on an AFROTC scholarship, and if I hadn't blown my knee out in basic I'd most likely be continuing the tradition. I still feel very strongly about the military, especially how veterans are treated. This is... horrific and disgusting and intolerable.

OK. *deep breath* back to your regularly scheduled library-related postings...

Another beautiful 79° day in sunny Tucson.

Eyes Wide Open

OK, I try not to talk politics here, so if polititalk bothers you, skip this posting.

While walking back from lunch today on the student mall, I saw a crowd of people. Wandering over to see what was going on, I came upon my first Empty Boots memorial, put on by Eyes Wide Open.

It was like being punched in the stomach. I am pro-military but anti-war (yes, that is a possible combination); I come from a long line of military service, went to school on a military scholarship, and have many friends in the military. This war is senseless to me; this was something I knew long ago, but to see the row upon row of empty boots and shoes, all with a tag representing someone dead, was like a physical blow. Before I realized what was happening, I was crying. (Thankfully, the volunteers who organized this were prepared and had boxes of tissues handy. There are some great, strong people who do this.)

If you have not experienced one of these, do so. Regardless of your political party, stance on the war, feelings about G. W., or any of that - visit the exhibit's site and see when they'll be in your area. Then go. Walk through. Listen to the speakers reading the names of the dead. And mourn.