Carlos Arredondo's son Alex Arredondo, a Marine from Boston who died at age 20 in Najaf, Iraq in August 2004. The first I heard about Alex's father is when he attacked the vehicle, which carried the Marines who told him about his son's death, by setting it on fire.
The next time that I heard of Carlos was in late January and there was a rally in Washington DC where Mr. Arredondo set up his memorial to his son. I keep an electronic journal of articles and images and I keep his. While I was surfing the net this morning and checking out some fellow bloggers, I found this site, Iraq Veterans Memorial and I started to watch it. It takes me a couple of attempts to watch these kind of things, if I can even watch them at all, they are very moving. I want to honor those who have died and I do! It is very difficult to watch the family members who have survived their loved ones death to talk about their losses but there is a part of me that is drawn to that too I guess. Alex's step mother, Melida, is also a vocal anti war protester and wrote a heartfelt essay on her grief.
The hardest part of this war are the stories like this one which don't go away. Alex's parents grief has taken on a Cindy Shehan like publicity, yet without the parents becoming a target for the right as people who are exploiting their son's death.
It is all very sad.
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