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Show Middle East crisis spawns new emotions raumshells ll BV BRENDA BAUMGARTNER we would risk the lives of our young people? If it is so precious why do we waste energy so frequently? fre-quently? I believe we should support sup-port the troops in the Middle East, and yet I hope that we don't lose another 58,000 people like we did in Vietnam only to wonder for years after why we were even there. Many of these people are reservists reser-vists who joined to help pay college expenses or who were needing extra money to support a family. They are not Ram bo's or G.I. Joes who joined hoping to become heros by jumping through the fire and dodging dodg-ing grenades. 1 Having a brother in the reserves has made me aware that it is such a tragedy to even lose one soldier. The fear and anxiety the families of the troops in the Middle East must feel is probably worse than if they were on the front lines themselves. If you know of someone who will be spending the holidays alone this year because their loved one is in the Middle East, why not show your concern by writing a note of appreciation, ap-preciation, or friendship. So often we show our support when things are new and exciting, but then forget about the situations after the media decides it's old news. Ask if there is something you can do to help. Write letters to the servicemen. Offer to take pictures of the family to send over. But I think the most important way to show our support is to use our energy wisely. Show these men and women and especially the families that we care enough about getting them home that we will do our part by conserving the very thing they are trying to protect. I now feel differently when I hear that a serviceman was killed somewhere thousands of miles away, because I know that there is a loved one (perhaps a sister) who doesn't care about the reasons or the bravery, but only about the person per-son they have lost. By BRENDA BAUMGARTNER As I sat watching "Biloxi Blues" on Veterans Day it made me think more seriously about the men and women stationed in Saudi Arabia. It's a subject that is on the news every night and just about everyone from my daughter's second se-cond grade teacher to Dear Abby is putting together letter writing campaigns cam-paigns to show our support for these people. I have never been a person to show much interest in foreign matters. Just recently I forced myself my-self to locate Kuwait on a map. My attitude in the past was I don't feel affected by it so why should I be concerned? This point of view has changed because now the conflict is really hitting home for me. My youngest brother, Brent, is a member of the army reserves. He is 18 years old and a student at Arizona State University. Uni-versity. He was only 9 years old when I got married and moved away, so it's hard for me to imagine my little brother the same little boy, who at age 4, was always unintentionally mooning everyone, because he was too thin to keep his pants up, is old enough to go across the world and possibly fight a war. He has not yet been called to duty, but everyday it looks more likely he will. It has made me do a lot of thinking about the families of the men and women who are already there. My brother is unmarried unmar-ried and has no children. What some might think is the perfect candidate can-didate for this type of mission. So if a sister is this worried about her brother who isn't even in Saudi Arabia, can you imagine the feelings feel-ings of the spouses and children of the people who are there? I, like many other Americans, have wondered why we are in the Middle East. Are we doing the right thing? Does anyone care what we think? Is oil so precious to us that |