Writing a sports column Thursday, for Friday’s edition, is not an easy task.
As my fingers work the keyboard, my eyes and ears are on the television set above my desk.
Usually, that set is tuned to sports events so members of our department, who are not out covering local contests, can keep up with sporting activity throughout the country.
But this day, the television set is not tuned to a sports channel.
It is tuned to CNN and, as I write this at 10:20 a.m., John Holliman reports, in total darkness, of the events taking place that very moment in Baghdad, Iraq. Later, his reporting will cease as the government of Iraq forbids further transmissions.
I was 6 months old when Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States was forced to declare war upon another nation.
I was a grammar school student when neighborhood boys went to Korea to participate in that “conflict,” and I was a young wife with two children when my late husband served his Army tour of duty as next-of-kin notification officer for the city of New York during the Vietnam “conflict.”
I recall his sadness at having to tell parents, often through interpreters, that their sons had been killed by “a short round.” It wasn’t until I saw the movie “Friendly Fire” that I really knew what he was talking about. I didn’t realize, at the time, the “short rounds” were ours.
Last night, I sat with my husband, Peter, who was on active duty with the Air Force twice, once during the Cuban missile crisis and later during the Vietnam conflict, and watched and listened in sadness as we learned, for the second time in our lifetimes, our country had officially declared war.
Talking with family members, especially one’s children, becomes paramount at such a time, and both of us were fortunate to be able to talk with ours.
Other parents, thousands of them, are not so fortunate.
They eagerly read newspapers and stay tuned to television sets and radios, hoping for news that would give them some hint of what may be happening to their children.
I pray for them, and I pray for their sons and daughters.
Life seems temporarily on hold, in suspended animation. But all around us, life goes on.
Teachers teach, writers write, players play, and reporters report.
Sporting events will continue as normally as possible, as they must. The main concern appears to be the threat of terrorist activity at major sporting events, and some events will be affected because of security concerns.
Sports administrators, on all levels, will be taking a more cautious approach in their planning, but it is doubtful we will notice much change in this country.
Sporting events will continue around the world, even in the Middle East where our soldiers, male and female, use such activities as an emotional outlet and a way to remain in top physical condition. A baseball, volleyball, or football, tossed around here, can just as easily be tossed around there.
But here in Maine, with our thoughts so riveted on the crisis in the Persian Gulf, we find ourselves praying for the life of another young man, fighting a battle of his own.
Our hearts go out to the family of Peter McKernan, son of Gov. John McKernan and Judith Vigue.
We pray for a complete and speedy recovery for the Dartmouth College sophomore, who suffered cardiac arrest following a preseason baseball workout at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.
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