Georgia father who sought revenge in Iraq is back home

[kskiska]

ADAIRSVILLE, Ga. - National Guard member Joe Johnson volunteered to go to Iraq to avenge his son's death. But what he saw there caused a change of heart.

Johnson was horrified by the extreme poverty. The friendliness of the people and the grateful smiles of Iraqi children weakened his desire for revenge and made him want to help instead.

At a ceremony Friday, two months after Johnson's return from his eight-month tour, the state of Georgia dedicated an rural north Georgia interchange to the memory of his son. Justin Johnson, 22, was killed by a roadside bomb in April 2004, just 12 days after arriving in Iraq.

(snip)

His wife, Jan, said she told her husband before he left that killing Iraqis was never going to bring Justin back. However, she recognized that going to Iraq was something he had to do to start healing.

more…
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/14990153.htm

[MercutioATC]

1. Great story.

It shows how the "bogeyman" we're taught to hate becomes less easy to hate when we see its real face.

[Erika]

2. So very sad

But the Bush donators have never been richer. You have to learn that accumulation of wealth is how the bushbots define their success and worthiness. So a few hundred thousands of Iraqis are dead, W paid back his contributors. The GOP have their priorites.

[don954]

3. its easy to hate a faceless idea

but when the people enter your monkey-sphere, you realize these are real people just like you and me...

[Up2Late]

4. It's amazing what anger and hate will drive someone to do...

...which is why ridding the mind of those emotions is one of the main goals of a practicing Buddhist.

[LynnTheDem]

5. Gee, maybe the IRAQIS want revenge. For having their country

invaded and occupied. For having their men, women & babies slaughtered on a daily basis. By Americans.

Funny how people like Mr. Johnson never think of that.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

6. He should have gone to Crawford, Tx to find the criminal responsible

for his son's death.

[0007]

9. ...or Midland Texas for family values and a moral compass!

[Vidar]

7. Sometimes it works the way it's supposed to.

[happydreams]

10. What a shit-for -brains idiot. nt

[GoddessOfGuinness]

11. It's too bad he wasn't horrified by the fact that we're responsible

for much of that poverty.

I'm glad his heart was turned away from revenge, though.

[BrotherBuzz]

12. Joe Johnson need to contact Fernando Suarez and get to work

Dead Soldier's Dad Finds No Enemy in Iraq

by Rebecca Romani
December 30, 2004

 
ESCONDIDO, California - Fernando Suarez del Solar is a busy man. He is busy opening boxes, counting pills, counting bandages; he is busy checking everything in the boxes that come addressed to him from all over the United States.

Suarez stops for a moment. "There are other boxes," he says, "many of them in San Francisco, in New York, in Chicago. So many boxes."

He could be doing other things. It is holiday time, after all, and the Mexican immigrant could be out shopping for his grandchildren; he could be out enjoying the unusually balmy weather.

But he needs to be checking these boxes. Like Suarez, their contents will be heading for Iraq, on a mission that memorialises his only son, Jesus, one of the first soldiers to die in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

<snip>

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1230-01.htm