Lest we forget

Summer is approaching. And with the rise in temperatures, there is always a surge in crime across the country, a surge in gas prices and the inevitable lack of concern. Our collective interest in news through the summer months tends to decline in America as we are progressively more distracted by beaches, sun tans, vacation and day care for the kids. Stories that were once topped the news hour are tossed to the back of the broadcast behind catchy pieces like shark attacks or kidnappings. And at a time when the media has been giving less attention to the war in Iraq, there is a fear that it will disappear.

But we cannot forget the war that our country is fighting.

According to a Pew Research study, Americans are starved for more news on Iraq. Quality news, that is, with context and validity. The media is meeting only a fraction of demand. Through June 2007, the study showed that Iraq was at the top of the list of interest, with 28 percent of Americans following the story closely. But the media only gave 9 percent of its coverage to it. We have failed.

Today, with gas prices soaring, a presidential campaign making history before our eyes and an economic recession settling in, it is easy to see how a war being fought 6 thousand miles away can take a back seat. But the fact that the story did not receive its due over the past year brings reason to the lack of understanding across the nation about the effect the war has on all three of these leading stories.

$2 billion per week is being spent in Iraq.
OPEC nations will not supply the US.
Our army is sitting on top of one of the largest oil wells in the world, but nothing is coming out of it - not legally anyway.
While we attempt to stabilize another country and rebuild the infrastructure we destroyed, a war is raging in the streets of our own country stroked by a failing economy and harsh realities ohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.giff poverty. We are losing that war.
All of the hope and change that presidential hopefuls are spewing links back directly to the Middle East. And its more than rhetorical. As a country we have come to view Iraq as a philosophical problem.

Don't forget, people are dying.

Just today, a bomb was set off in Baghdad killing 60 people. Sixty people.
Virginia Tech was on the top of our news broadcasts for a month after the "massacre" occured on April 16, 2007. Memorial services continued through the football season into October. Plenty of time was given to grieve. Not to discount the tragedy of it all, but only 32 lives were lost on that day. Twice that many were lost in Baghdad in one incident. There will be others. There will be no time to mourn.

So as we proceed through the mundane drudgery of making ends meet and throwing together a couple bucks to fill up our gas tanks and head to the next party, remember the gift we have in stability. Remember the sacrafice that our soldiers are making with more than just their lives, but their mental stability when the return home. And remember, although the media may not be reminding us everyday of the tragedy in the Middle East, it rages on. Be grateful. Be mindful. Be educated.

The face America's War, courtesy of the Associated Press and the brave men and women who serve us and continually inform us: