One Mother's Answer

Board of Selectman
Walpole Town Hall
att: Catherine Winston, Chair
 
A friend recently showed me a news item from Daily News Transcript written by Jeb Bobseine.  The heading read "Selectmen call coffin display 'insensitive.'" Chairwoman of the Selectman, Cathie Winston said the display would 'only heighten the anxieties and fears of those residents with friends and family currently serving in the military.'  As the mother of an army reservist who has served one year in Iraq and who will soon leave for another year long deployment in Afghanistan, I would like to disagree.  I live with the knowledge of what my son's service in a combat zone as a medic and mental health worker  means every minute of the day. I know what it is like to dread the knock on the door or the late night phone call.   What is appalling to me is that the American people seem to want to forget this terrible war and the price we have all paid for it in life and treasure. When my son returned from a year in Iraq, he was depressed by the indifference of so many here at home to what was happening to our troops and the Iraqi people.  Coffins and memorials to those who have died, a moment of attention paid to those who will never return to family and friends, are not ‘insensitive,’ they are reminders that we are ALL involved in this tragedy.
 
Every family I know who has lost a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan is disgusted by the executive order which does not allow a flag draped coffin to be shown on the news.   I know a mother who was told to wait until after sundown to receive the body of her beloved son, because coffins of dead soldiers may not be off loaded from planes until it is dark!  
 
I applaud Walpole for bringing a few hours of reality to your town common.  If the people of Walpole find coffins distasteful, perhaps they should wake up and remember, there IS a war going on and we who shoulder it know what a coffin looks like.   
 
Sarah Fuhro