One of the issues that gets swept out of the public eye far too often is the human component of our soliders and what happens with their families during the long, multiple tours overseas. The WaPo has a great piece today about a group that formed to address this issue for the kids left behind:
“There’s stress that goes along with not knowing if your parent is going to be okay. Hearing or seeing very graphic things. Hearing about mass casualties,” said Judith A. Cohen, a Pittsburgh child psychiatrist.To meet the need of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which have meant the deployment of more than 1 million Americans since 2001, nonprofit groups are sprouting from seeds of good intentions. One is Our Military Kids, which provides grants for activities to children such as the Wilkinsons.
Started in McLean in 2005, the organization has delivered more than $600,000 to the children of deployed National Guard and reserves parents in chunks no greater than $500. Payments have reached children in all 50 states, the District and Puerto Rico.
In Ohio alone, grants have paid for lessons in swimming, dance, cheerleading, martial arts, piano, football, acting, bowling, softball and driver’s education. The money may not stretch far, but children, parents and National Guard officers say the cash often makes a critical difference at a time when many kids feel needy.
Now that is patriotic — and a wonderful idea. You can find more information about Our Military Kids at their website. It’s only one organization listed in the WaPo article, but most national guard and reserve unit commanders have information about local groups set up to help with these issues as well — so if you are interested in helping out, call your local unit and ask what you can best do to pitch in for these kids and families.
It’s time we all started doing more than just slapping a magnet on our cars and acting self-righteous about our bumper stickers. There are kids out there in America who are terrified for their parents, and they deserve better than some puffed up “patriotism and platitudes.”
Sometimes, as little as a teddy bear and a chance to spend some time with other kids in the same boat can make a world of difference, as can some adult just listening a little bit and giving them an outlet to express their fear and frustration and pride and whatever else is on their minds.
You want to serve your nation during the 4th of July? Helping these kids through a rough time is a great way to start.
If you are an artist, offer a day of lessons once every couple of weeks. Or help with a creative writing course if you are a writer. Or start a reading group at the local library so military spouses can browse for a book in peace for a half hour or so. Or if you have horses, setting something up once a week so that a kid or two can come out and have a ride. Or set up a photography course with some disposable cameras and an hour or two and a donation of print development from a local shop. Or a cooking class, so older kids can learn to make a meal for the parent that is home with them or for themselves if that parent is working double shifts to make up the pay differential of the long reserves tour. Or…well, you get what I’m saying. The possibilities are endless, but it takes making that first step to make it happen.
If none of that works for you, try some of the ideas here. Or some of the other ones here. We all do well to remember that the soldiers being moved back and forth on the President’s orders are human beings with families and loved ones and friends who want nothing more than their safe return. And we do even better to realize that some of these soliders have children who didn’t ask to be this afraid that daddy or mommy would never come back.
If you know of other groups or organizations that are working on these issues or that deserve a shout out, please feel free to link them up in the comments. Putting our values to work means that we are actually doing something — and a magnet on your car is not nearly enough for these kids. Reach out, and put your values to work for someone who really needs a hand. You’ll be glad you did, and your community will benefit from it immensely.
(Photo via cyanocorax.)
Related posts:
- Putting America Back to Work: What a Principled Government Would Do
- Late Night: Fox & Friends Have No Clue About School
- Report Confirms Poor Electrical Work by KBR Endangers US Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
- Values Voter Summit: Oh Please Someone, We Have To Attend!
- Democracy Alliance: Putting the “Pen” in Veal Pen
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Great post Christy!
small typo 1st para:
componantcomponent .dos?
I support the troops. Bring them home. Now!
What a wonderful idea. The families are having to bear a lot of the weight of these quagmires.
there’s a good point too Christy, WE know our soldiers are human , the president thinks they’re his private toy chest to play around as his fancy suits.
these aren’t people to him they are assets and pawns
And please, for those of us who do not delineate between ‘them and our’s children’, let’s not forget the kids in Iraq who have lost their mommy’s and daddy’s through no fault of their own. The children crying in the night, in the streets. Children, are after all, are just children. They depend on grown-ups.
hey all
The legacy of George Bush? Widow and orphan maker. That’s his history.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 7
excellent point
OKK at 7 — If I could find some good information on organizations over there that help kids through this, I’d post it in a heartbeat. I haven’t been able to find kids organizations that I’ve been able to check background on to vet out how things are spent and what they do for the kids. If anyone knows of some good orgs doing work in Iraq or Afghanistan, please do share them in the comments because I’d love to know about them.
Thank you for another inspiration.
Christy, one of the guys in our church asked us to send him things to distribute to the local kids where he was stationed in Afghanistan but I think he’s back now.
Will try to follow up, maybe he passed the baton to some of his buddies there.
The American Friends Service Committee and KnightsBridge. You can go to both these websites and see what they are doing. They were on the ground in Iraq for ten years throughout the sanctions working with the people’s needs. Saddam left them alone. The Americans came in and they had to flee to Jordan. They worked closely with Margaret Hassan and left when she was kidnapped and murdered. However, they found a way to still be involved.
I seem to have run out of different ways to say thanks, but thanks. Checking out the link now.
Correction: AFSC was on the ground in Iraq for ten years throughout the sanctions. KnightsBridge began their work in Afganistan when the war began.
As someone who works with charities, I second Quaker Girl’s recommendation of the AFSC. Would enjoy hearing more about what KnightsBridge do.
Also would add the Mennonites and their relief work overseas. Both groups do amazing work on a shoestring, as little overhead as possible and direct involvement in the hellholes of the world.
Threads die so quickly and completely that I’m just tossing this into the live one.
Yesterday Christy asked us about our favorite less-than-highbrow books and movies, and in the course of a discussion about kinds of literature, Rayne quoted from Shelley’s “A Defence of Poetry”. Apparently, a critic in England (this was in 1820) wrote that poets ought to apply their energies and genius to doing practical things, since all the poetry being written was derivative, trivial stuff. Shelley got mad and wrote his essay.
Towards the end, Shelley asks that the ‘mechanist’, the ‘political economist’, the ‘calculator’ not think that their efforts encompass everything that is valuable. He says (and this is why I’m posting this comment — it’s very appropriate to the concerns that animate FDL):
“The rich have become richer, and the poor have become poorer; and the vessel of the state is driven between the Scylla and Charybdis of anarchy and despotism. Such are the effects which must ever flow from an unmitigated exercise of the calculating faculty.”
Obstructionist Republicans, Karl Rove, politicians who only look for advancement: Shelley had your number.
I suppose the greatest horror for me as a papa, is to think that if I should die tomorow, my baby, my Princess, my grown daughter, the apple of my eye, (with all our family and friends) would feel so all alone.
egregious @ 17
Thank you. I meant to include the Mennonites. They do wonderful work and work closely with AFSC. These organizations have no agenda but to serve people in desperate situations not of their control.
KnightsBride International began with two senior citizens (former Viet Vets) who knew the tragic situation for the people in a war zone so they began this small NGO on their credit card. There is a documentary on their work, Beyond the Call.
I want peace. I want no more blood shed. I want no more children without fathers and mothers. And I want a president elected in 2008 who agrees with this plea.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 19
OKK, that sentence should be engraved in granite and respected by all.
QuakerGirl—ya never know what might happen when starting a humanitarian organization on a credit card. If you have enough passion others will be drawn into the work.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 19
Thank you. I feel the same way about my son.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 21
Oklahoma -
So many of us feel this way. We do not want to see that same vacant look of horror and fear in the eyes of our children that we see of children in catastrophic war zones. Never.
to help children (and grown ups) in afghanistan, may i suggestion a donation to emergency.
see the documentary, “Jung: war in the land of the Mujaheddin” for the inspirational story behind emergency and it’s founder, gino strada.
O yeah, I remember somebody quipping once, “Put a flag or a yellow ribbon on your car; it’s the very LEAST you can do.” Our Military Kids is the real deal; kudos to them.
selise @ 26
Thank you. I’d not heard of Emergency. What else do you know about it?
OT: Popcorn subject in the making. Whistleblower comes forward about spying on Americans:
http://www.davidswanson.org/?q=node/852
LS, I love ya!
LS—I think it’s safe to assume there is a dossier on every American who works overseas for more than a couple of weeks. I just took this for granted for the past 11 years and have been careful about every single word on the phone, fax, email, text messages, and even in public. And that’s with no agenda other than humanitarian work. People are watched by both the sending and the receiving country.
LS @ 29
Thanks! Just forwarded it to a few people.
behindthefall @ 18 quotes Shelley: “the vessel of the state is driven between the Scylla and Charybdis of anarchy and despotism“.
Like that quote very much. But these days, to see Scylla is to embrace Charybdis. Or vice versa. Steer? Huh? What are you – a socialist?
TexB @ 28
all good. jung was a feature film in the 2002 human rights watch international film festival. i worked with them to get the film show here at the local medical school and, with help from physicians for human rights (which was doing a lot of work in afghanistan at that time), i was able to bring an afghani visiting scholar from the harvard school of public health to the showing for a discussion afterwards.
everyone had very good things to say about emergency. there was a follow up documentary shown on pbs, “Afghanistan Year 1380“. there is more info at the pbs link, including an interview with gino strada.
wish jung had gotten more attention… beautiful, inspiring movie. but at the time (winter of 2002), most of america was still deep in denial about what we were doing in afghanistan, and not very interested in seeing afghanis as humans harmed by our war.
egregious @ 31
You are absolutely right!! Hi NSA “waving”…
emergency used to do a lot of work in iraq, but i think all their hospitals / clincs have been turned over to local control, so i don’t know how to support them
i think oxfamusa is doing work in iraq now. i really like oxfam.
Whoa, did you realize that Pelosi has taken Bush’s one man trade agreement policy away? Who is it that keeps saying Pelosi ‘07?
http://english.aljazeera.net/N…..804BFB.htm
If the FBI and the CIA and whoever doesn’t have a file on me yet, will you guys hurry up. I want something to tell my grandkids about. ;0)
I support our Speaker.
Christy -
Your suggestion is so needed perhaps FDL could have a list of NGOs that do humanitarian work abroad and a list of local organizations and community outreach for our own military family’s children. I find our own is local and so much outreach has been done by religious organizations.
I am always skeptical of religious organizations and their agenda but they seem to do outreach. I have many military families in my community, several in my apartment complex. God bless the grandmothers. I see them taking on a heavy load while the other member of the family works while Dad is away in the military. It’s a friendly area so the kids get a lot of attention from the surrounding community. Still, these kids are under haunting stress that we don’t see at bedtime when the tears flow and the thoughts frightening intrude.
For the flip side of the nightmare, go read this: http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..2011/50813
Red-eyed robots capable of telling when someone poses a threat and without compunction about killing: no remorse, no inconvenient children left at home to worry, to mourn, to present a link to decency and mercy.
I cannot fathom whether the interviewee was indulging in Deep Irony, but it seems he was serious. (And soulless, or advocating soullessness.)
Oklahoma kiddo @ 37
Of course they have a file on you. It is a file of all the good music you play for us!! When they’re bored, they plug OKK file so they can rock out!!
behindthefall @ 18
Wasn’t me, sorry, I didn’t quote Shelley (although I would love to have done so). Vincula referred to Shelley in response to your commentary regarding different assessments of literary dichotomies.
GordonM @ 33
Yeah. Different take on Norquist’s ‘bathtub’, isn’t it? D*mn well better steer and paddle like h*ll or you WILL drown in the bathtub/whirlpool/strait between the clashing rocks.
Loo Hoo. @ 36
Granny took the T-Bird away.
Rayne @ 43
Ooops. I must have gotten my eyes crossed looking at the nested quotes. Well, in either event, I was glad to have been motivated to finally read the essay. (Now I don’t know who said what yesterday.)
I can’t get my link to individual pages on Rawstory to link, but when you have some time, go read what DC Madam is up to….heh, heh, heh.
LS @ 46
You mean this one?
OKK, my 21 year old daughter’s moving out! I know it’s time, I was out well before 21, but still. I cry. It’s so the end of so much. She just told me Thursday (she has a rich friend whose parents will pick up most of the cost) and she’s out tomorrow. She’s back from Las Vegas today.
Where did the 21 years go?
“There are kids out there in America who are terrified for their parents, and they deserve better than some puffed up “patriotism and platitudes.”
We’re going to try to stop the war-mongerers any way we can. These poor kids don’t see their soldier parents these days sometimes for years. It makes me sick. Bring the Troops Home!!
Loo Hoo. @ 48
I understand. ;0)
dakine01 @ 47
Yup. Thanks!
“D.C. Madam, as she has been dubbed by the national media, still covered many topics: Why she believes her case will never go to trial; the Bush administration’s alleged involvement, dealings with a pushy ABC News team, and even on the Iraq War.
All things equal, Palfrey wants to stick it to the government.
46 pounds
Even if just 20 high-profile names are culled from her phone records, Palfrey says the White House would “implode” over the scandals.
“If what I’m saying is true and this goes to the heart of the Bush administration and the corruption the last several years, then yeah, I’ll have an army behind me,” Palfrey said.”
LS @ 42
;0)!
more on emergency from pbs. first graph:
For Loo Hoo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZKuK6FwjoU
selise @ 53
Thank you so much for the information on Emergency. I now have it included among the NGOs in my personal file. NGOs get zilch coverage by the media. Everything I have I stumbled across.
Hollywood Freddie Thompson just laid a big turd in the punchbowl here in NH.
Seems the politically astute folks here were not impressed at having to pay $50.00 to hear some Hollywood elite, lawyer-lobbyist speak for a total of 9 minutes.
Rumors of Hollywood Fred’s laziness are more true today than yesterday.
-GSD
GSD @ 56
Freddy Krugerand
Thanks, OKK!
Some advice to Hollywood Freddie.
At least pretend to be interested.
-GSD
Do you have a link GSD?
Iraq Gold Rush is almost on:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/mon…..raq101.xml
What are we fighting for – OIL and EVERYTHING else…
Hollywood Freddie Thompson, just what America needs in troubled times, another pampered, lazy lightweight.
-GSD
I know this is off subject, but have you seen W’s comments about the failed immigration bill? He is putting the blame on Congress and not taking responsibility for himself. That is not news. But does anyone think the whole immigration bill ploy the last month or so, and Bush’s break from his party, is more camouflage for his administration in upcoming scandals, and less his domestic legacy as a compassionate conservative?
I can just see Rove and Bush saying, “don’t budge, in fact go against the repubs in order to blame Congress, lower their poll numbers further, and create cover for us.”
GSD @ 57
Oh, but it gets even better, Freddie alienates the one reliably Repub voting block of Hispanics.
Hollywood Freddie sounds like a Not Ready for Prime Time Player.
-GSD
Any guesses on what Putin is saying to POTUS?
And WHY is Putin there at all?
1) Brought over by 41 and cronies to talk some sense into 43? Such as: OK, you ignored the Iraq Study Group; try ignoring this guy when he says that he’ll nuke the U.S. and its military assets if you attack Iran?
2) Brought over by 43 to offer Putin some shiny things in return for NOT nuking the U.S. WHEN POTUS gives the order to invade Iran?
3) Where the dickens is the VP? Shouldn’t he hear some of this?
4) Maybe they’re just having lobster?
There is another very BIG way that mail-order companies can support troops deployed overseas: Offer the option to ship goods to APO addresses by USPS Priority Mail. A major drawback to assignments outside the U.S. is that many companies will not ship to APO addresses because they only use shippers like UPS or FedEx to send their products. Only USPS can send shipments to APOs. As a result, those of us outside the US do not have access to those same goods (without using an intermeadiary to mail them to us and thus paying for shipping twice). This is a real problem facing deployed military members and it really sucks!
This morning’s “Sunday Morning” on CBS had a piece on two summer camps for children whose parents are serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Comments from the individual kids about their parents were heart-wrenching. I went to CBS’ site, and they don’t have a link to the video, but here’s info about the two camps:
Informative article. Thanks.
$600,000.00???
In reading this, I could not help but think about the BILLIONS of dollars that the Republicans have stolen from our nation’s treasury, handing out no-bid contracts to crony corporations like Halliburton, taxpayer money that could have easily covered these humanitarian expenses involving families of our service members.
Once again, I have to ask what happened to the Republican Party, supposedly the “Christianized” party? Oh, that’s right, greed has trumped sanity in the Republican Party of today.
The CEOs of these (primarily) crony Republican-run corporations, who’ve made millions of dollars in yearly bonuses, have betrayed all of us, but especially the members of our military and their families.
Have these Republican CEOs no conscience at all? No shame? Do they believe that there will be no backlash against them as more and more U.S. citizens awaken to the damage these corrupt, money-mad Republican CEOs have done to our democracy, and to the future financial outlook for our nation’s children? Incredible.