From Ginmar, who’s over there right about now.
Independence is one of those concepts you think you understand—till you have to put it into action. Then it can feel an awful lot like exile. It tends to exhibit itself in small everyday things, not big gestures. (Except what’s not a big gesture but liberating a country?) It can be breaking up with a boyfriend, leaving your folks’ house, or just standing up and saying, “That isn’t right.” Here, it’s the refusal of American and Iraqi both to surrender to the urge to join a mob, to let other people do the thinking.
It’s Iraqis who are apprehending terrorists—or just facing them down—–unarmed. It’s Israel Putnam, saying something he may or may not have said: “Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war….Let it begin here.” It’s a lot of other things, too, but at bottom, it all boils down to thinking for one’s self…and then acting on it. It’s not about being alone, although sometimes it can get you isolated. Learning that can be very hard.
white pebble 