Thank you, Brandon

You were 20 years old when  you were killed by an Improvised Explosive Device in Baghdad, Iraq – the same age as friends of mine currently deployed in the war. I wish I could have met you in person, shook your hand and said thank you for what you gave to our country and for your military service. The profile I wrote about you for The Arbiter last year is hanging in my office to remind me daily of what we lost, and of the person I will never get to meet, but have grown to care about deeply.

One thing I know we have in common is the belief that America is a country made by the people, for the people; something that women and men like you serve and protect daily. I’ve learned that people serve in the military for many reasons. Some believe they are fighting for our freedom. Some fight to receive an education. Some fight because they want to get the “bad guys.” Some fight because they can’t leave their friends in the desert to fight and die alone.

All the military personnel I’ve talked to echo that sentiment equally; they want to serve their country. Some return home from war with the battle still raging in their mind, eyes calling out to remember who they were before they experienced such profound violence and loss.

One soldier I interviewed said he fought to preserve the American way of life, then came back to America, looked around, and wondered what it was he almost died protecting. He said he sometimes feels Americans have forgotten him, his fellow soldiers and you. When I asked the same soldier if he feels his service was worth it, he beamed with pride and recalled his best day in Iraq, when he passed school supplies out to kids at a school he helped build.

Honestly Brandon, I have a hard time reconciling all of this. I’m not sure what “fighting for freedom” means, or what this war aims to accomplish. I know I don’t want the experience of soldiers, or civilians in the countries we are at war with to go unnoticed or be forgotten. I’m certain the mother of one of those children in Iraq wonders in equal dismay at the world she has to raise her child in, and dreams of peace and a concept of freedom I’m not going to try and define for her, just as I would not ask her to define what freedom is supposed to be for me.

After I wrote your profile, and took some history classes at Boise State, I decided it’s ignorant to believe the military is solely responsible to protect our freedom, or that the government can run itself while the rest of us remain ignorant to what seems so blaringly obvious: this country – and this world – needs a lot of work.

You saw that Brandon, and choose a course for your life that you felt you would serve our country best. I too have a responsibility to serve our country through my skill and intellect. I work to be an educated citizen who votes, engages in the free exchange of ideas and is a part of the consensus of people who will help solve the problems our world faces.

Retired Four Star U.S. Gen. John Abizaid told me our generation is one of “pragmatic problem solvers.” He said we resist seeing the world in the ideological shades of blue and red, and instead look for solutions to the obstacles we face. He said he’s led us on the battlefield, and in the classrooms, and is confident our generation will lead this nation where it needs to go.

Both presidential candidates claim they will change the country for the better. I look to them with hope, but do not surrender my hope to them. I believe all of us, conservative, liberal, independent (or what have you) are ready not only for change, but to serve. We are ready to roll up our sleeves and do what it takes to fix this mess and claim for ourselves what it means to be American. We are ready to show the world what good we can do.

I promise to remember that the United States is not a government in Washington D.C., or a document hanging in the National Archive or some talking heads on a television, but something in the hearts and minds of us all. This is something we’re all responsible to defend and cultivate. Thank you, Brandon, for teaching me this lesson, and for giving your life in service of that cause.

Respectfully,
Shannon Morgan
Editor-in-Chief

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2. Letter from the Editor
3. "My time has come"
4. Student soldier speaks out
5. We are five years closer to winning the War on Terror