Pelosi Honors California Vets who Died

Dignity. Respect. Honor.

Today the third most powerful elected official in America sat in a windswept plaza in San Francisco and listened respectfully as the names of California veterans who have died were read aloud in a memorial service.

She spoke too, but as one gentleman said to me. "Bunch a other politicians would speak and dash off, but not Nancy. She stayed. She listened. She honored them."

In addition to the ones who died in Afghanistan they also read the names of vets who died in Iraq and on the streets of San Francisco. Some took their own lives. We can't know all the reasons people commit suicide, but many of the vets were struggling with trauma from their experiences in war. That's a cost of war that isn't always calculated in the spreadsheets of the new weapons systems and armor.

Maybe it's because I'm a Vulcan, but I have to say that I could hear the emotion very clearly in the voices of the readers.

I heard a tall black woman with short cropped hair start crying as she read the names of war dead.

I heard a powerful dignity in the voice of an Iraq war vet as he read the names of the dead from his company.

At 12:41 pm they read the name of one of the vets from California who died in April of 2004. Name? Casey Sheehan. I jumped a bit because it was a name I recognized.

A few minutes later they read MY name.

That really sent a chill down my spine.

You know how when you are at a party and someone says your name in a conversation and you hear it out of all the background noise? In brain research we call that the cocktail party effect (that's the technical name).

Someone with my exact same name died in the Iraq war. Did he die because I didn't work hard enough to make sure he didn't have to go to Iraq? Yes.

It can be very hard to be connected to a war that is taking place thousands of miles away that has dropped off the front pages.

Maybe if I had been smarter or worked harder he wouldn't have had to go to Iraq. It's too late for him, but maybe someone with YOUR exact same name is still on duty. It makes the whole "bring the troops home" story a lot more personal if you know you are working to get YOURSELF out of Iraq.

Maybe you'd like to check to see if someone with your name died (Link) I don't know how to check to see if someone with your name is still in harms way. But given there are over 150,000, there now and more ready to be rotated over, the odds are good someone with your name needs your support in which ever fashion you feel will best show your concern.