Seeing death

Every once in a while I have smacked the life out of an insect. Heck, I've even inadvertently killed gnats while riding my bike or on my windshield whooshing down the roadway. I have seen these deaths. And tonight I saw one that was a bit closer to home.

On my way back from work on Tuesday night I happened to be passing a spot where people often gather on the Northwest corner of Cedar Lake, where the Cedar Lake Trail crosses under Cedar Lake Parkway. It is kind of a serene, placid place, until yesterday. Now, for me, it will be a reminder of where I experienced the death of one of my human travelers.

A man, I did not know him nor did I ever see his face, was lying on the ground, his body crumpled from having fallen (that is about as graphic as I will get), was involuntarily breathing his last breath as myself and others stood around, helpless to do anything. His life ended in front of all of us and we could do nothing but vainly call for help. By the time the help had arrived, it was too late.

But all of us, trying to do what little we knew what to do, were affected. I am not saying that we were any type of victim of this accident, just witnesses. But the thoughts could nothing but occupy my mind: Someone lost a loved one and nothing could be done to change that.

I have not experienced much death in my life. I have been fortunate in this, very fortunate. And seeing what I did, I can only move forward and appreciate what I have, the life I usually take for granted. This man could well have been me or anyone. And, because it wasn't, I must do my best to not take this short span of time as if it is a guarantee.

From this point on, every time I ride along this point, I will remember the life I saw extinguished. It will be a reminder to me to push forward.

Peace.

Another unnecessary death

Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth died in January in Iraq. He died while trying to take a shower because he was electrocuted by faulty design. He died without a bullet fired...

As you may well know, I was a member of the Reserve and National Guard for almost 12 years. I don't wear the uniform anymore but I did have a job that I needed to know a crapload about the military for. One thing I know is that people in the military are trained fighting machines. They train to do battle, to do things that promote or resupply the battle or to make sure that those outside the battle are kept up.

But when someone dies, and not the first, from a faulty shower, that is absolutely pathetic. As I was reading the article on CNN, I read that Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, only fixes problems in Iraq once they have occurred, and is not doing preventive maintenance, I am, I don't know, wanting to vomit pretty hard.

Imagine if you were given a huge blank check and told to go support the mission in Iraq and you failed to the point that you were killing our own servicemen. How would you live with yourself? Would you need to pardon yourself as you blew your nose into crisp $100 bills?

I think this war is a crock of crap, part of the reason I left in the first place, but this, along with 11 other reported deaths from the SAME THING makes me want to do something rash.

I think I need a cigarette...