Watching The NewsHour with Jim Jehrer last night, and suddenly the television went dead.? Or so I thought.? I was preoccupied, walking about the house, getting things together for myself.? Turns out the television was not dead at all.? The NewsHour was showing the dead, images of American soldiers killed recently in Iraq.

And I looked with new eyes.? Army.? Army.? Army.? Marines.? Army.? Marines.? I don’t remember freezing like that since the war began.? Now the numbers and the faces meant something different.

Because of my son and his plans.

We all need to wake up.? Desperately.? Too many names and faces already.