Take a Stand Day

I just got home from Reading, where one of the five (?) PA Take a Stand events happened. It was great. I'll write more tomorrow because I'm exhausted right now. John Morgan has a good write-up and some nice photos. He tells the tale of Twenty-Minute Rita, Congressman Gerlach's aide, who couldn't be bothered to stay at the event for longer than twenty minutes. Congressman Gerlach couldn't bother to show up at all. Twenty-Minute Rita's quick exit is a problem since we're guessing that it was her job to report back to the absent Congressman about what happened in Reading tonight.

As a result of Twenty-Minute bolting before a half and hour was up, she missed hearing from Celeste Zappalla, who lost a son to this war that Gerlach won't try to stop. Celeste gave a profoundly moving speech that touched on, among other things, the childhood and inspiring too-short adult life of her lost son, the insanity of the war that killed him and the names of the young men who have died in Iraq in the last week alone as this cruel misadventure drags on ... but Twenty-Minute Rita isn't going to be able to tell her boss, Congressman Gerlach, about that.

Twenty-Minute Rita also won't be telling her boss, Congressman Gerlach, about Matt R., who was part of the initial invasion and occupation of Iraq and has since resigned his commission. He's no bleeding heart, he told the crowd, but this war did not need to be fought.

Twenty-Minute Rita didn't stay to listen to Chris Fegley, a local pyschologist, explain that by his conservative calculations, the cost of helping the vets suffering from PTSD and returning to Berks County alone, will cost $18M.

Congressman Gerlach won't be getting any of that information from his aide, Twenty-Minute Rita. But Celeste will still be fighting against this war and missing her lost son. Matt will still be sharing his story about a war that did not need to be fought. Chris Fegley will keep sounding the alarm of the coming warborne mental health care crisis and thinking about how he will be able to help integrate damaged men and women back into the community in the safest and most compassionate way possible. And our soldiers will keep killing and dying in Iraq every single day that Congressman Gerlach does nothing and continues to fund this war.

Martin Luther King said this about another war forty years ago in NYC:

Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter -- but beautiful -- struggle for a new world. This is the callling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.

Congressman Gerlach may prefer it otherwise, but he must choose in this crucial moment. Will he stand with a failed and lunatic president or will he stand on the side of ending the misbegotten war that maniac started?

Related: More Take a Stand coverage here at dKos and Americablog.