Freedom phone plans not big comfort for us as war deaths climb
Posted by debi on May 30th, 2007 filed in In the news
One of the greatest boons to military spouses and their families has to be those “freedom” long distance calling plans that started popping up a couple of years ago.
Now they’re everywhere - even usable over the computer. Yee-ha. We can call and talk endlessly with our loved ones at any hour of the day and night. Thank you, phone gods, thank you!
We really should stand up and cheer for these patriotic corporate types warming seats in their gleaming boardrooms. They could be raking in an ungodly amount of profit from all of us yearning to phone home at least twice every day, simply to hear the comforting voices of our loved ones embedded in Middle America and points beyond. Thankfully, they aren’t.
I think it’s wonderful that we’ve been blessed with the ability to converse freely with our family and friends across the country whenever we want, for as long as we want. We can chatter away for hours without a single thought given to minute-by-minute long distance charges on our home phone bills.
We can call two, five, more than twenty times a day if we want to. These calls aren’t even documented and itemized on our monthly billing statements. Unlimited calling literally means “unlimited” to the three-piece suits who said “Let’s do it!” at our landline phone company, Verizon.
Talk about freedom!
We can spent 30 hours chatting with Mom in Minneapolis, 20 hours conversing with relatives in Chicago, another 10 hours catching up with friends who live in Memphis. All for that one flat fee each month - which costs less than one adult day ticket to Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
Thanks to Verizon’s Freedom Plan, the phones in our home have successfully gone retro, resurrecting that rusty 1980-ish mantra as “the next best thing to being there.”
And yet, there are times when I wish we didn’t even have telephones. Times when I find myself struggling like crazy to convey through that plastic device pressed firmly to my head the profound impact of the war in Iraq and its aftermath as it affects those of us here in Hampton Roads - home of the largest naval base in the world. Especially when I’m talking to civilian friends and family members who live at least 1000 miles away.
I speak, I screech, I passionately try to articulate it all - only to receive in the end a long, expansive nothing in the way of a hopefully anticipated and overwhelmingly needed, “I-understand-and-completely-agree with you!” reply.
We might as well admit it. Those who live in Middle America can’t possibly understand. Their silence during such phone calls clearly reveals that they are far too insulated and isolated, far too unaffected as a whole by the immensity of this thing called “War Over There” as we place phone call after phone call, trying to share our “up close and too personal” experience as members of the military community.
The truth is that friends and family members tucked comfortably away in their own quiet, non-military neighborhoods across America are so physically and emotionally removed from our military presence in the Middle East that they can’t even begin to comprehend the atrocities our deployed service members are coping with. Let alone the profound virtues attached to our own commitment to liberate the Iraqi people in general.
They only know what they see on TV or read in the newspapers. Even though we’ve all learned from experience how reliably inaccurate and emotionally sterile such media accounts can be.
The war is right ‘here’
For the rest of us, the war in Iraq and its aftermath lives nowhere but right here. It beats in our hearts, it devours our thoughts. It sits, day after day, in our own backyards. It joins us at our breakfast tables and goes to school with our children. It comes home every evening as our SUVs pull into the driveway and we sit down in front of the blue-gray glow of the TV in our living rooms to hear how many of “us” were tragically lost in battle today.
After all, we are the ones who comprehend the true weight of duty; we recognize the face of danger and when necessary, the face of death. Especially as the death count has climbed to its highest monthly toll among our service members in Iraq for the first time in 2 1/2 years.
We’ve courageously made the journey from the Persian Gulf War to Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. We grieve over fallen sailors and soldiers as if they were our own brothers and sisters. If you think about it, that’s exactly what they are.
We know that, as Americans, we will do whatever it takes to bring justice and freedom to the world by supporting our loved ones, neighbors and friends in uniform who struggle and fight in the Middle East, regardless of what it takes. Our allegiance to them, our faith in them, is all that matters.
We know that Middle America needs to see photos of flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq, if only so that citizens in these communities recognize the true cost of freedom, feels the sting of reality, comprehending that mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country for all the right reasons.
An email that continues to circulate the internet written by 1st Lt. Robert L. Nofsinger, USMC, while stationed in Ramadi, Iraq, says it all:
“Freedom is not free and peace without principles is not peace,” he wrote. “The peace that so-called ‘peace advocates’ support can only be brought to Iraq through the military.
We are doing that, if only the world will let us! If the American people believe we are failing, even if we are not, then we will ultimately fail.
Become a voice of truth in your community. Wherever you are, fight the lies of the enemy. Don’t buy into the pessimism and apathy that says, “It’s hopeless,” “They hate us too much,” “That part of the world is just too messed up,” “It’s our fault anyway,” “We’re to blame,” and so forth.
Whether you’re working at a 9-5 job, retired, or a stay-at-home mom you can make a huge difference! There is nothing more powerful than the truth. When you watch the news and see doomsday predictions and spiteful opinions on our efforts over here, you can refute them by knowing that we are doing a tremendous amount of good.
Spread the word. No one is poised to make such an amazing contribution to the everyday lives of Iraqis and the rest of the Arab world than the American Armed Forces. By making this a place where liberty can finally grow, we are making the whole world safer.
Your efforts at home are directly tied to our success. You are the soldiers at home fighting the war of perception. So I’m asking you as a fellow fighting man to do your duty. Stop the attempts of the enemy wherever you are. You are a mighty force for good, because truth is on your side. Together we will win this fight and ensure a better world for the future.”
You can help
Caring really is the next best thing to ‘being there.’ Freedom phone plans might fall short in the comfort department for us here, but there are still things we can do to help the troops through these difficult times.
If you’d like to help do something proactive for the troops and the war effort, get involved with cell phone donations for the troops by contacting Cell Phones for Soldiers. Help Veterans of Foreign Wars organizations provide phone cards to military personnel through Operation Uplink To learn more about helping deployed/wounded American soldiers and to contact/support troops personally, contact Operation Band Aid.
One Response to “Freedom phone plans not big comfort for us as war deaths climb”
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May 30th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Debi, you are right about several things, here.
Out here in the Homeland, we ARE removed from the atrocities of the War. We do have tragedy - motorcycle accidents, bizarre domestic shootings, wierd child abuse cases, tornados and flooding. We see the results of the War when our brave come home for a week or two to see the family, or when one of our local heros pays the ultimate sacrifice. We do talk about it, and we talk about the lack of rain for the crops, and the expansion of the housing developments, the latest star exploits, and the cost of gasoline. We don’t dispute that the War is going on and that War is a good thing, in the big picture. We are patriotic, we support the troops, we wear red shirts on Friday and have those magnetic ribbons on our cars. Some of our schoolchildren have adopted deployed units to take care of; care packages, cards, letters, drawings. We do what we can.
You are right that we cannot possible comprehend what is going on Over There. Only those who have been in War really appreciate War. Even the best war movies ever - Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan - can’t do enough to convey to us how it is. But do we really need to know so well what is going on? If we all have the same experience, how can we be different enough to be the Melting Pot that is America? We can agree with you that things are very different in your neck of the woods, compared to life here. But then it always was, even before War. So we have different roles to play in the support of our troops.
I see our role as those for whom they are fighting. The freedom they gain is not only for the oppressed in the desert, but also for those of us back home. You and Me.
Brave military folks face awfulness so that we may continue the way of life they remember. We are obligated to remember them, but we are also obligated to carry on with the Great American Way Of Life. We continue to hold high school graduation, shake our fist at the idiot who cuts us off at the intersection, and drop off the dry cleaning. We must shop for the groceries, celebrate the birth of our friend’s baby, complain at City Council meetings, and wonder why the KFC is closed AGAIN!! We have an obligation, out here in the great between (of the two coasts), to maintain the way of life that is so dear to the American Armed Forces.
Because, if we don’t keep up this lifestyle, they will have nothing to come back to and it will all be in vain. Can’t happen on my watch!!
However, you have educated me and others. I can help out with a phone. I can contact Operation Band Aid. And I can encourage my friends to do the same. Meanwhile, it’s time to turn off the sprinkler and do the dishes.
Thanks, Debi, for reminding me of my obligation to my Countrymen.