Yesterday evening I was working at the Bowery when my phone lit up twice. The first time it was one of my solids from home who is currently in the Air Force and stationed in Texas. Unfortunately, we were busy at the time so I couldn’t take his call. The second call was from another close friend from home who served four years in the Army prior to being released this past year. Trevor returned home and got a job with the local radio station while he began his education at a branch of Penn State. Things had finally settled down for the GTC, and it felt like most of us were moving ahead together with new adventures and accomplishments to share with one another.
Everything changed with that second phone call. Trevor called with bad news. Not thinking straight, my instinct led me to believe that he was arrested and needed a lawyer. This comes natural when you are from a place where the economic disparity forces a large number of kids in my generation to sell drugs or commit other petty crimes in the hopes of getting ahead. In a town like Clearfield, you are measured by your possessions. The more you have, the higher you are held in regards to social standing. This forces kids who can only work in factories for nominal pay to look for alternative sources of income.
Thank God Trevor’s record is still clean.
Fuck God for endorsing George Bush, (if you didn’t know he leads by divine providence).
If you haven’t figured by now, Trevor has been called up for active duty. His year and a half tour will be spent fighting in Iraq. Trevor will be fighting an unjust war to protect our imported natural resources. For anyone who was lucky enough to come in contact with Trevor over his 24 years of life will know this kid should not be subject to this kind of atrocity. This isn’t to say he can’t handle it. Trevor is one of the most mentally and physically tough people I’ve ever known. If I know Trevor, he will take this set back in stride. He will bite his tongue, go to Iraq, fight the good fight and return home visibly unchanged.
But this is beside the point. Trevor served his time. He gave four years of his life to the armed forces in the hopes of creating a better future for himself. During our senior year of High School Trevor aka Stan the Man, decided his best way out of our God given plight was to join the army. He knew it would help pay for a higher education. He knew it would provide a solid foundation to start a family. He knew it would assist in his future job searches. What Trevor didn’t know in 1999, was that in the year 2000, and even more so after 9/11, our country would be in a delicate position with a rash cowboy steering the ignorant heard.
In a month to the day, Trevor will be on a flight across the Atlantic heading for battleground. I wish him the best and hope he knows he’s got my love. His loyalty and kindness have always been a serious influence on my attitude and the way I treat my friends. Though I don’t want to use Trevor as a poster boy for any anti-war or anti-Bush slander, it almost seems criminal not to. If you need one single reason to step into the voting booth in early November, I’m got it in human form. He would appreciate your vote for an exit strategy. He would appreciate your vote for a world devoid of wars. He would appreciate your vote for a Commander and Chief who adheres to the policies of the U.N. He would appreciate your vote for a President who doesn’t allow special interest to dictate the most important of decisions. He would appreciate your vote.
As I sit here welling up while my fingers blindly poke at my keyboard, I can’t help but think how lucky we all are to have friends or should I say brothers and sisters who are willing to sacrifice not because they have to, but because they are willing to in the hopes of protecting the greater good. Trevor is the toughest son-of-a-bitch I know and yet his heart is made of gold. The kid never had anything, and yet he never asked for anything. Isn’t time we award this unique breed of people by voting responsibly for a better tomorrow?
3 Comments:
oh man, that's extremely tough. the exact same thing happened to my best friend in university. he joined before the war started not expecting to ever see combat. then the war started and he was shipped off to fight. we were floored. good luck to your friend trevor. scat
so how is your friend doing scat? is he/she still over there? i just called around and got it worked out where trevor can come up and party this weeekend, then i'll take a few days off at the end of the month to go hang at home with him. its killling me on the inside, but he is staying positive, and when you are starring at something like that, positivity is all you got.
actually, my friend met a woman there and got married! he's doing fine, but it's almost impossible to contact him and of course i'm scared for him. his story is quite fucked up. he's actually south african and moved to the states with his parents when he was about 13. when we were at school he ran out of money and the school wouldn't give him any because he was a landed immigrant and people born here got priority. however, they were cool with him joining the army to pay off his school bills. and then the war started and he got shipped over. scat
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