Forget Politics for a Few Moments — and Give Thanks

Like most Americans, I watched the final Presidential debate last night. I found myself yelling at the television set a few times, wanting to turn it off and walk away, but unable to stop watching the train wreck that this campaign has become.

And this morning, I was still fired up about the upcoming election, my head — like so many Americans’ — swirling with thoughts of the economy, the deficit, the housing market, the future of my health care plan, my 401K account (and the monthly statements sitting on my desk, still in the sealed envelopes in which the letter carrier delivered them that I don’t have the courage to open), foreign policy, the financial cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have now dragged on longer than World War II did . . .

As is my custom, when I got to work this morning, I visited the Sacramento Bee’s website, planning to click on the “Politics” link to read about local and State issues.

Instead, I found myself drawn to the photo that graced the newspaper’s home page of the young family at the shore. I had to know why that young couple — the wife leaning lovingly into her strong husband’s chest — was prominently displayed. I caught my breath when I read the headline, hoping that it didn’t mean what I already knew to be true: “Soldier’s sorrowful homecoming — Dad brings body of his only child, killed in Iraq last week, back to Sacramento.”

Suddenly, my intense loathing of Sarah Palin and everything she stands for did not matter. In that moment, I no longer remembered who scored the biggest zinger during last night’s debate. For the minutes that followed, tears rolled down my cheeks as I learned about the sacrifice that young husband and father’s family has suffered for the good of their country, and it didn’t matter who wins on November 4, 2008. Because the reality is that one Sacramento family — like so many other families who have bid farewell to the soldiers among them and then held their breath between the long-distance reassurances that they are still okay — has suffered the greatest imaginable loss. And in the face of that reality, politics just didn’t — and don’t — matter.

Bradley Clark is the director of operations for Kalitta Charters, a company that contracts with the Department of Defense to transport the bodies of those who die overseas back to their families. Mr. Clark performs difficult, but necessary work. His is an honorable profession about which he says, “We’re proud to bring the fallen soldiers home.”

But today Mr. Clark was called upon to perform a task that should never be expected of any parent. Today, he brought home the body of his only child, Sgt. Michael Kyle Clark, pictured in the three-and-a-half-year-old photo above.

Michael Clark was a fire support specialist who coordinated and determined which enemy targets to fire at. He died during his second deployment to Iraq which was scheduled to end in early 2009, just three days after he and his wife marked their fifth wedding anniversary. He was 24 years old. His mother, a systems analyst for the State of California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told the Bee that Michael’s wife and child “were everything to him.” Just as Michael was undoubtedly “everything” to his mother and father, to whom, as fate would have it, fell the sad duty of bringing Michael home for the last time.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a prepared statement, noting that Michael’s service and sacrifice will “forever be remembered,” and ordered Sacramento flags to fly at half-staff.

This country would not exist, even in its current imperfect, struggling state, but for the sacrifice of generations of soldiers like Michael who have fought for and defended it during so many wars on so many different continents.

The domestic issues we are facing are daunting. As Barack Obama has stated many times during his campaign speeches, we face the greatest economic challenges since the Great Depression. So many of us are struggling simply to fill the gas tanks of our vehicles so that we can get to work to earn enough money to feed our families, make our mortgage payments in order to hold onto our homes for as long as we can, and be able to turn the furnace on as winter settles in.

But we must pause from time to time and remember that beyond all of the political rhetoric, theoretical debate about foreign policy, and consternation about how and when to extricate our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, our fellow citizens are still there and many of them are dying each and every day. Many more families will, like Michael Clark’s, be mired in grief before Barack Obama or John McCain is inaugurated, takes up residence in the White House, and attempts to implement the policies that have powered him into the history books.

Today I am thankful for the life of Michael Clark and his willingness to serve his country, even to the point of returning to Iraq after being injured in a dirt bike accident following the conclusion of his first tour of duty. He told his mother that he had to return because he had a duty to his fellow soldiers and “If something happened, I couldn’t live with myself.”

Something did happen. Something horrific and heart-breaking. Something that shouldn’t be happening to Michael or any other American soldier. Something that no family back here at home should have to survive. Something that will continue happening until our elected officials figure out how to make it stop happening.

Tomorrow I will again peruse the headlines in the local and national newspapers. I’ll go back to loathing Sarah Palin and her lack of integrity. I’ll go back to procrastinating about looking at my 401K and bank statements, and curse when I stop at the gas station on my way to work in the morning and watch the numbers spinning around and around, stopping at a total dollar amount I never would have believed could be possible. I’ll go back to yelling at my kids to turn off the lights they seem to constantly leave on when they move from one room to another here at home, and I’ll brace myself for the shock when I see how much money it costs to fill the kitchen cupboards back up when I go shopping for food on Saturday morning.

But for today — just for today — I’m taking a break from all that and saying “Thank you” to Micahel’s family, all of the other families who have lost loved ones in Iraq or Afghanistan, and the Divine Creator for the service of my fellow Americans on my behalf. I’m giving praise and thanksgiving for their families, especially those who, like the Clark family, are in mourning today for a son, daughter, husband, wife, father, mother, sister or brother who will not return alive from a war that makes absolutely no sense to most of us, anyway.

And no matter what we think of the politicians who sent them there, we must be grateful for their service because they are there not for the politicians, but on our behalf. Please join me in praying for their safe return to their families.

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More information: Politics, Thankful Thursday, War in Iraq