Nameless Soldier wrote a couple of diaries
1, 2 about his recent call-up that have touched a lot of us. He's getting on the plane this afternoon and I know a lot of people here care about what happens to him.
Soonergrunt has posted some very powerful diaries here and I know a lot of prayers and good wishes go out to him as well. I wouldn't be surprised to find that there are more than a handful of soldiers here, looking for a community where they can safely express doubts about the way the war is being handled.
BullitNutz and thecarriest and others suggested we organize some way of sending tangible support to the soldiers and sailors and Marines (have there been any airmen?) we have come to know on this blog.
So I am writing this diary to prod that idea along. How can we set up a dKos operation to send practical support "over there" and demonstrate in the most constructive way possible that we support the troops even though we are opposed to Bush and his war.
Has anyone here ever belonged to one of those sponsor a child programs? The money you send doesn't help just that one child, it helps the whole family--all the other people around the child. sometimes it is combined with other people's gifts to help the entire village where the child lives--building or repairing infrastructure like schools and wells or buying a vehicle for food and mail and medicine delivery.
So.
Why can't dKos "sponsor" soonergrunt and nameless soldier and a couple of the other guys who post here?
Via email or some other off-blog method, our sponsored soldiers tell us how we can contact them, and what are the best things to send (baby wipes, candy, socks, t-shirts, DVDs, CDs, etc.).
Anyone here who wants to could send practical care packages at the level they could afford--one gift once, a big package every month, whatever. Anyone here who has big bucks might want to make a serious donation like a Kevlar Interceptor vest. Yes, some guys are having them sent from home. This war is officially insane. And God bless Stephanie Kwolek, the creator of Kevlar, who never earned a penny in royalties because, like all employees, she had to sign all her royalty rights over to DuPont.
Anyway, we start sending our packages as we can when we can, to the handful of guys we know about.
Our guys will end up getting a lot more stuff than they personally need or can use.
Then they can freely (liberally!) share it with the guys serving with them, so that the people around them also benefit from the dKosKare packages.
It won't take long before someone asks--where is all this stuff coming from? That creates a small window to speak the truth about liberals and Democrats who really do support the troops.
In one fell swoop three things are accomplished:
- we will all know that the guys who post here, whom we have come to care so deeply about, are well taken care of.
- we will help them provide for others in their units and take care of the people serving with them.
- we will demonstrate our support for the troops in a tangible and undeniable way.
Hearts might be opened and minds might be changed to counteract some of the hatred of us (us liberals, us Democrats, us people opposed to the war) that is preached to the troops every day by bait and hate talk shows.
I assume everyone here knows that Rush Limbaugh is broadcast daily on AFRTS (formerly known as Armed Forces Radio). We won't get equal time for Air America while the Rs control the appropriations bills, but care packages speak louder than Limbaugh.
Doing it this way lets us start small. We don't need to create a whole big project. It lets us give priority to the guys we know and care about who already have some connection to us. And it gives those of us who don't otherwise know anyone over there a chance to give direct support to someone over there.
I wonder if Markos would be willing to put a button on the front page linking to more detailed info about this project.
Is anyone aware of a liberal group already doing something like this so that we don't have to reinvent the wheel?
Is this a crazy idea? Will it "out" our friends as liberal sympathizers in a way that could hurt them more than help them?
Does anybody have an idea about how we could make this work?