There have been some news stories in the last day or two saying that people are beginning forget that we are in Iraq, that nearly 4,000 servicemembers have lost their lives there. I would be completely flattened by this, but I know it's not universally true. Matthew's high school (which was also Maria's) has a Social Justice Club which is organizing a drive to send personal items to soldiers in northern Iraq. I don't know why they chose this particular location, or what brought this up at this time, but I am glad. Matthew has agreed to drop our donated items off in the main office in the morning. I took a little trip to Target (known as Tarzhay) this morning and we have about three bags to send along. I actually picked normal sizes of things like shampoo and toothpaste because the travel sizes run out so quickly and the truth is, if they are in the Army, they are going to be there for a year. Or maybe a bit more.

I felt a little shaky buying these things. Luckily, no one asked what I was doing, or I probably would have ended up crying, right there. The tears do seem to be right beneath the surface lately. Oh well. I've been looking more on the internet for references to him--interestingly, there are a couple of Thomas Doerflingers who get thousands of mentions in Google. I have skipped over the stories about the economist and others. Anyway, we'll send the items along and hope that they do some good.

The Chaldean Catholic bishop in Mosul was murdered--his body was found today. Martyred for his beliefs, he may one day be added to the calendar of saints I imagine . . .