"Tell Them I Didn't Cry"

Go find this at the library!

Written by Jackie Spinner, a reporter for the Washington Post, who volunteered to spend 10 months in Iraq so that she could deliver the truth of the story to the people back home. To people (that's us) who go about their daily life not even consciously realizing (at least not past the surface of knowledge) that on the other side of the world, people are suffering and dying.

Who cares if you're for or against what's going on in Iraq? I don't even know how I feel. But I do know, that after reading this book, that I feel silly for the things I complain about in daily life, when meanwhile, people are going about their day in another world over there, wondering if they'll live another day. The people that Jackie talked to were usually very grateful for the reason the U.S. was there, but the consequences of war are just everywhere.

As I was in church yesterday, in worship, it brought tears to my eyes just to think about how lucky I am to have the freedom for that. I can walk into a church and not be afraid that it might get attacked by a bomb. Sure, it happens here in the U.S., things like that… but not everyday, everywhere, all the time. We don't have to be afraid to do things that seem so simple. Jackie talks about how she would print out pictures of herbs and vegetables from "google" as a shopping list, so that her Iraqi staff members could go to the grocery store for her, as it was too dangerous at one point for her to do so. She talks about their regular budget, and how they needed to "get back in the black with the guy they paid not to kill them". She spent almost her whole time there dressed in attire to be disguised as an Iraqi woman, and not recognized as a westerner. And even still, she was almost kidnapped once (a Marine rescued her).

Here I am sitting here thinking about what I might eat for lunch today, or if I'll have enough time to get all my errands done before our company comes tonight. What if, in addition to that, I had to worry about which would be the safest route to do those errands, or if I'd still have electricity by the time our company arrives? Or what if I had to worry that my company would even make it alive? What if I had to worry that I'd make it back in time before the "curfew", even though I had to wait three hours in line for a "car bomb check point" . What if I had to worry about keeping the volume down while the company was here- having to go outside every so often to see how loud it might be to Iraqi insurgents listening nearby?

We are so lucky and blessed… and we know it… but we don't even really know it.