About that war...

Beverly Beckham wrote a beautiful piece for today's Boston Globe about the Iraq war - and what it is costing some of us.

On home front, war out of focus
Losses mount, attention wanes

He was 19 and his name was Shayne Cabino and he lived in my town and he was killed on Oct. 6 in Iraq, one of at least 1,965 members of the US military now dead since the war began.

Cabino's family, too distraught to talk, held a news conference at the Canton police station, where a friend read a statement saying that ''Shayne wanted to make the world a better place" and that he ''was extremely proud of the uniform he wore and the fact that he was serving his country."

Shayne Cabino was a tall, skinny boy who graduated from high school only 16 months ago and gave his life for his country on a roadside in Iraq. ''An improvised explosive device," jury-rigged to kill American soldiers, exploded, killing him and three other young Marines, Nicholas Cherava, 21, Patrick Kenny, 20, and Jason Frye, 19.

A few words, a few prayers, a plaque somewhere for all of them.

And the beat goes on.

I remember being a child and learning in social studies that in ancient times girls were often plucked out of their lives and burned on an altar to appease the gods. And I remember thinking how lucky I was that I didn't live in those days.

Now I am old, and I think, only the altar has changed. Kids are still being plucked out of their lives and sacrificed...

Yesterday afternoon an army recruiter called to talk to my younger son, who happened to be home at the time, and happened to answer the phone. The recruiter asked what he's up to, where he's going to college, and if he's happy there. My son is a strong minded and intelligent young man, and politely told the guy no thank you. But it got me thinking - once again - about Charlie Rangel's plea. I don't want any of my kids fighting in that misbegotten war. But it's just too easy to put aside thoughts of the kids who are "plucked out of their lives and sacrificed." And of their parents, in the midst of whose lives an IED has exploded, and changed everything in one instant.