jpetito

Occasionally you run across things said or written by others who condense what you think and feel far better than yourself:

When you lose a friend you have an overpowering desire to go back home and yell in everybody's ear, "This guy was killed fighting for you. Don't forget him-- ever. Keep him in your mind when you wake up in the morning and when you go to bed at night. Don't think of him as the statistic which changes 38,788 to 38,789. Think of him as a guy who wanted to live every bit as much as you do. Don't let him be just one of 'our brave boys' from he old home town, to whom a marble monument is erected in the city park, and a civic-minded lady calls the newspaper ten years later and wants to know why that 'unsightly stone' isn't removed."*

*Up Front, by Bill Mauldin, © 1944 United Features Syndicate Inc., © 1945 Henry Holt and Co. Inc. p. 57