Pub Rants

The Last Word

by Kristin Nelson

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STATUS: Busy Monday and I think it’s going to snow this evening.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? I WILL SURVIVE by Cake
(I apologize for the unintended irony but this was the song playing as I typed this.)

I read a story today in the New York Times that made a shiver slide down my spine. The story was of an American soldier blogging about his experience in Iraq for the last five years. Here’s the link to the NYT article and his site. His blog was featured on the website of the Rocky Mountain News.

Nothing new about that; there are a lot of blogging soldiers—except Andrew Olmsted decided to write a final blog, the last word, to be posted in the event of his death.

And he died in Iraq on Jan. 3, 2008; his final entry is posted.

A tribute to the power of blogging, free speech, and to the courage of choosing to have the final word when so often we don’t get the chance.

A moment of silence.

10 Responses

  3. booklady said:

    Wow. Reminds us once more about the power of words. Those who say that there is no sense of others or of community online have not read or written blogs. Humanity is everywhere.

  4. Amy Nathan said:

    Thanks for directing me to that site — what a well-expressed tribute he wrote to us all, of himself.

    My greatest take-away from it was that we often forget that millions of people suffer every single day from the perils of war. It touches us all in some way, and truly makes us all part of one nation.

  6. Music Critic said:

    We can leave the iPod issues until tomorrow. For now, thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.