Pain of long wars returns as anger

Thunder game was fun and energetic

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One way we got to the point of electing a mean, mendacious man as president was by sending almost 2 million men and women overseas to fight in two tragic wars.

The invasion of Afghanistan was justified to root out Al-Qaeda; the invasion of Iraq had no justification. Both wars moved quickly from triumphant invasion to fruitless occupation, both became swamps of futility in which U.S. soldiers were killed and maimed in a trickle of casualties that, over the years, became an ocean of pain.

In Iraq, the suffering continued for nearly nine years; in Afghanistan, for 20.

Every soldier who came home wounded added to the pool of disillusionment.

No one in my immediate family served in those wars, but I did have contact, through reporting, with soldiers from our area and with grieving families.

One of those soldiers, Stephen Madison of Corinth, died in 2005 because of two accidents caused by military negligence and incompetence. First, he was severely burned in a faulty shower at his base in Iraq. Then, back at Fort Riley, Kansas, he was prescribed too large a dosage of methadone, which built up in his system over three days and killed him.

I spoke with several of his friends by phone to write the story and drove down to Connecticut to interview one of his Army buddies. Everyone spoke of his gentleness and quirkiness and how he made them laugh. Everyone was gutted at losing Steve.

Several times, I interviewed his mother, Debra Harrington, who was thin and nervous and aching for answers about her son’s death.

Who had manufactured and installed the shower that switched suddenly from warm to scalding, knocking her son unconscious and burning him?

Why had an Army doctor given him such a high dose of methadone, which is known for its dangerous, long-lasting effects?

Why was he seen and sent home when he went to the Army hospital the night before he died and when he went back to the base clinic the next morning?

Harrington died last Sunday, Jan. 12, her questions unanswered. The death of her son was one of more than 7,000 among U.S. service members in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with tens of thousands wounded and more than 30,000 veterans of the two wars who have died by suicide.

I spoke with Stephanie DeLong, Stephen’s sister, on Thursday, and she sent me a message later.

“With my mother’s passing so suddenly, I’m at peace knowing that she is now with my brother,” she wrote.

Knowing their loved ones are resting in peace may be the only comfort available to family members of soldiers lost in these two wars, because it’s hard to point to anything that was accomplished. All that loved ones were left with was their loss.

The trauma of those wars has welled up in anger toward the institutions and the people that supported the wartime status quo. It has also, unfortunately, led to the election and re-election of the most unsuitable presidential candidate imaginable.

Yet Donald Trump, in his incompetence and selfishness, is what we deserved for sending troop after troop of young people into danger over two decades for no good reason.

We sowed the wind with two unnecessary wars, and as Trump takes office again, we are reaping the whirlwind.

Stephen Madison, who died because of a series of military errors during his service in the Iraq War, in a photo from the Facebook page of his mother, Debra Harrington, who died last week.

Hockey Night

A friend gave Bella and me tickets to the Adirondack Thunder game in the Civic Center last Sunday night (Jan. 12). It was exciting and fun, with a big crowd in the arena and good hockey on the ice.

The Thunder were down 1-0 when we left after the first period and, eventually, they lost the game 3-2. I noticed the Thunder were picking up more than their share of penalties and read that not only continued for the rest of the game but has been a theme for the team in recent games.

The Thunder are on a losing streak and have sunk to the bottom of the rankings, but it didn’t matter to me on Sunday and didn’t seem to matter to the rest of the fans. The team creates a fun experience and, at least this night, drew an enthusiastic crowd.

I’ve been going to hockey games now and then for 32 years in Glens Falls, and a few of those nights have been dismal, with sparse attendance and lackluster hockey. But the Thunder seem to have gotten it right, even if the team is losing at the moment.

I wanted to stay for the whole game, but leaving in the middle of experiences — or when they’ve just begun, or just as they’re reaching their peak — is something you have to accept as a caregiver for a loved one with Alzheimer’s. I try (not always successfully) to see it as learning a different way of being in the world, as living in the moment.

Sometimes, I resent what I’m missing, and I sulk. But last Sunday, I could accept leaving early, because I was glad Bella agreed to go at all, and I soaked up more riotous energy in that half an hour of hockey than I had in weeks beforehand.

For photographers, hockey is notoriously hard to shoot, because it’s so fast-moving, and you can’t get very close. The netting doesn’t help, either. But here, in action from the first period, the Thunder had an opportunity but were stopped by the Orlando defense.

Shooting selfies is easier at a hockey game than trying to get good action shots. Here, Bella and I enjoy the game.

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