A Message to all Railbirds
It's Sunday.
I'm reading a lot of the blogs.
It's remarkable to me how kind people are to each other here.
It's probably the main reason I've stayed over the long haul.
Even though I was raised Catholic and am now vastly lapsed - an existentialist libertarian anarchist at heart in fact - I still believe that the main message of Jesus still holds true.
Love conquers all.
The more you love, the more you can love -- and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of that majority who are decent and just.
--- Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein's "Time Enough For Love"
If I speak in tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal; and if I have prophetic powers, understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
--- The Apostle Paul in Corinthians
© Copyright 2008
23 comments
And I agree, there are SOOOO many nice and good peeps here!
GL 2 U 2day!!!
G
Great blog David!!!
You have a good week!!!!!
Very nice, thank you.
It is truely amazing just how much love this community has for each other and I'm proud to be a part of it.
What a wonderful thought and blog - Love and hugs conquers all and especially my heart !
Thats why I am here.
lol
angie
thank you for the lovely post best of luck ninjaluva
John 15 >>
King James Bible
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Death toll in Afghanistan
CanWest News Service
SixtyCanadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed since the Canadian military deployed to Afghanistan in early 2002.
April 17, 2002: Sgt. Marc D. Leger, Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, Pte. Richard A. Green and Pte. Nathan Smith were killed by friendly fire when an American fighter jet dropped a laser-guided 225-kilogram bomb on the soldiers during a training exercise near Kandahar. All served with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Battle Group.
Oct. 2, 2003: Sgt. Robert Alan Short and Cpl. Robbie Christopher Beerenfenger were killed and three others injured when their Iltis jeep struck a roadside bomb outside Camp Julien near Kabul. They were from the Third Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment.
Jan. 27, 2004: Cpl. Jamie Murphy died and three soldiers were injured by a suicide bomber while patrolling near Camp Julien in an Iltis jeep. All were members of the Royal Canadian Regiment.
Nov. 24, 2005: Pte. Braun Scott Woodfield, Royal Canadian Regiment, was killed in a traffic accident involving his light-armoured vehicle (LAV III) northeast of Kandahar. Three others soldiers suffered serious injuries.
Jan. 15, 2006: DiplomatGlyn Berry was killed and three soldiers injured by a suicide bomber in Kandahar. They were patrolling in a G Wagon.
March 2, 2006: Cpl. Paul Davis died and six others were injured when their LAV III collided with a civilian taxi just west of Kandahar during a routine patrol. The soldiers were with the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
March 5, 2006: Master Cpl. Timothy Wilson of Grande Prairie, Alta., succumbed to injuries suffered in the LAV III crash on March 2 in Afghanistan. Wilson died in hospital in Germany.
March 28-29, 2006:Pte. Robert Costall was killed in a firefight with Taliban insurgents in the desert north of Kandahar. A U.S. soldier and a number of Afghan troops also died and three Canadians were wounded. Costall was a member of 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton.
April 22, 2006: Four soldiers were killed when their armoured vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb near Gombad, north of Kandahar. They were Cpl. Matthew Dinning, stationed at Petawawa, Ont.; Bombardier Myles Mansell, based in Victoria; Lieut. William Turner, stationed in Edmonton, and Cpl. Randy Payne of CFB Wainwright, Alta.
May 17, 2006: Capt. Nichola Goddard, a combat engineer with the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery and Canada's first female combat death, killed during battle against Taliban forces in the Panjwai region, 24 kilometres west of Kandahar.
July 9, 2006: Cpl. Anthony Joseph Boneca, a reservist, with the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment based in Thunder Bay, Ont., was killed as Canadian military and Afghan security forces were pushing through an area west of Kandahar City that had been a hotbed of Taliban activity.
July 22, 2006: A suicide bomber blows himself up in Kandahar, killing two Canadian soldiers and wounded eight more.Cpl. Francisco Gomez, an anti-armour specialist from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in Edmonton, was driving the Bison armoured vehicle targeted by the bomber's vehicle. Cpl. Jason Patrick Warren of the Black Watch in Montreal was riding in the vehicle.
Aug. 3, 2006: Cpl. Christopher Jonathan Reid, with the 1st Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton, died overnight when a Canadian Light Armoured Vehicle, or LAV-3, was struck by a roadside bomb.Later the same say, three more Canadian soldiers were killed during a separate attack with rocket propelled grenades near Kandahar city. According to a DND website late Thursday,Sgt. Vaughn Ingram of the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, andCpl. Bryce Jeffrey Keller of the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry were also killed. The fourth dead soldier was not identified. Several other Canadian soldiers were injured in the attack.
Aug. 5, 2006: Master Cpl. Raymond Arndt, of the Edmonton-based Loyal Edmonton Regiment,was killed Aug. 5 when a G-Wagon making a supply run collided with a civilian truck.
Aug. 9, 2006: Master Cpl. Jeffrey Scott Walsh, based out of Shilo, Man. with the second batallion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, was conducting routine operations along Highway One near the Zhari district centre, about 20 kilometres west of Kandahar city was he wasshot in a "weapons related accident" unrelated to enemy fire about noon Wednesday, just days after arriving in Kandahar to begin his tour of duty.
August 11, 2006: Cpl. Andrew James Eykelenboom with the1st Field Ambulance based in Edmonton, was killed when his vehicle was hit by a suicide bomber.
August22, 2006: Canadian Corp. David Braun,a recently arrived soldier with the second battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, was killed by a suicide bomber outside the gates of Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar City. The soldier, in his 20s, was a native of Raymore, Sask.Three other Canadian soldiers were injured in the afternoon attack.
September 3, 2006:Warrant Officer Richard Francis Nolan,Warrant Officer Frank Robert Mellish, Sergeant Shane Stachnik, and Pte. William Jonathan James Cushley, all based at CFB Petawawa, west of Ottawa, were among four soldierskilled in fierce fighting in southern Afghanistan. Several more soldiers were wounded.
September 4, 2006:Pte. Mark Anthony Graham, a member of 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, based at CFB Petawawa, Ont., killed and dozens of others wounded in a friendly fire incident involving an American A-10 Warthog aircraft.
September 18, 2006: Four soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber riding a bicycle detonated explosives in the Panjwai area. Cpl Shane Keating,Cpl Keith Morley and Pte. David Byers, 22, all members of the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry from Shilo, Man and Cpl. Glen Arnold, a member of the 2 Field Ambulance, from Petawawa, Ont. were killed in the attack that wounded several others.
September 29, 2006:Pte. Josh Klukie was killed by an improvised explosive device, while he was conducting a foot patrol in the Panjwaii district in Kandahar province.
October 3,2006:Sgt. Craig Gillam andCpl. Robert Mitchell of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, based in Petawawa, Ont., killed in series of mortar, rocket attacks just west of Kandahar city
October 7, 2006: Mark Andrew Wilson of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, based in Petawawa, Ont., was killed when his armoured vehicle was hit by a roadside explosion in the Panjwaii district.
October 14, 2006: A storm of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades killed Sgt. Darcy Tedford of Charles Company, 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, based in Petawawa, Ont. and Pte. Blake Williamson, also based in Petawawa, in southern Afghanistan. Three others are expected to recover from their wounds.
November 27, 2006:Two Canadian soldiers, Chief Warrant Officer Albert Storm and Sgt. Maj. Bob Girouard, were killed on the outskirts of Kandahar on Monday when a suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of military vehicles. The soldiers were members of the Royal Canadian Regiment based in Petawawa, Ont. They were in an armoured personnel carrier that had just left the Kandahar Airfield base when a vehicle drove up to it and detonated explosives.
March 6, 2007: Cpl. Kevin Megeney, 25, a reservist from Stellarton, N.S., and a member of 1st Battalion Nova Scotia Highlandersis the 45th Canadian military death in Afghanistan since 2002. Megeney was shot through the chest and left lung in what's believed to be a "friendly fire" incident.
April 8, 2007 : Six Canadian soldiers died in southern Afghanistan as a result of injuries sustained when the vehicle they were travelling in hit an explosive device.The men were identified as Sgt. Donald Lucas, 31, of Burton, N.B., Pte. Kevin Kennedy, 20, of St. Lawrence, Nfld., Cpl. Aaron E. Williams, 23, of Lincoln, N.B., and Pte. David R. Greenslade, 20, of Saint John, N.B., Cpl. Christopher P. Stannix, 24, of Dartmouth, N.S., and Cpl. Brent Poland, 37, of Sarnia, Ont.
April 11, 2007 : Master Cpl. Allan Stewart, 30, and Trooper Patrick James Pentland, 23 - both of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, based in Petawawa, Ont. - died after their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in an area about 38 km west of Kandahar City.
April 18, 2007: Master Cpl. Anthony Klumpenhouwer.A special operations soldier died in an accident when he fell while climbing a communications tower.
May 25, 2007: Corp. Matthew McCully. An infantryman killed when a road-side bomb exploded nearhim during Operation Hoover, a major operation to clear out Taliban.
May 30, 2007 : Master Cpl. Darrell Jason Priede was the 56th Canadian service member killed since 2002 in Afghanistan, his death coming less than a week after another corporal lost his life to a roadside bomb.
June 11, 2007 :Trooper Darryl Caswell, 25, waskilled whenthe armoured vehicle he was driving was ripped apart by an improvised explosive deviceen route to a remote NATO base in Afghanistan since 2002.
June 20, 2007:Sgt. Christos Karigiannis,Cpl.Stephen Frederick Bouzane and Pte. Joel Vincent Wiebe, all of 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, werekilled when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb near a forward-operating base at Sperwan Ghar, west of Kandahar.
© CanWest News Service 2006
THEY SHALL GROW NOT OLD AS WE
THAT ARE LEFT GROW OLD;
AGE SHALL NOT WEARY THEM NOR
THE YEARS CONDEMN.
AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN
AND IN THE MORNING,
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.