Memorial Day – Andi Marquette

Hi, kids. I blogged some resources and organizations over at Women and Words to donate to on this Memorial Day. Find that here.

Commemorate those veterans who are lost, remember their families, and let’s also help our veterans still with us, and their families, as well.

The Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia ends today. Thanks to all who participated, and thanks to all the readers who came by. I’ll be picking a winner tonight and notifying said winner within 30 minutes of the 9 PM EST drawing and I’ll post that winner’s name (the handle he or she left on the comment) on the blog I did for the hop.

Hope everyone had a safe weekend, and to those of you who serve or have served, thank you. To those families who have lost someone in service in our armed forces, our thoughts are with you and many of us are trying to help organizations that help veterans and their families if we can’t help you directly.

Thanks, all, and I’ll catch you later this week.

Happy reading, happy writing.

May 27, 2013May 27, 2013 by Andi Marquette Categories: Announcements, Holidays, In MemoriamTags: holiday, Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia, Memorial Day 2 Comments

Hi, folks–

If you’re hanging out at home (maybe it got a little hot to do much on this Monday off), I recommend this book by Sebastian Junger:

War

source

The book accompanies a documentary called Restrepo, but if you’re not familiar with Junger’s writing, read this book. He is a master with phrasing, narrative, and sparse, gritty language that puts you right into the heart of whatever he’s describing. Here, Junger spent months shadowing an American infantry platoon in Afghanistan. Here’s a quote from a New York Times book review:

The best way to describe Junger’s book is to say what it is not. “War” does not attempt to explain the strategy behind the American war in Afghanistan, or the politics of Afghanistan, or even the people of the Korangal Valley. As the action unfolds, Junger makes no attempt to connect it to anything else happening inside the country.

Instead, he uses the platoon (the second of Battle Company, part of the 173rd Airborne Brigade) as a kind of laboratory to examine the human condition as it evolved under the extraordinary circumstances in which these soldiers fought and lived.
source, New York Times Review of Books, review by Dexter Filkins

Here’s a trailer from the documentary Restrepo, which won the 2010 Grand Jury Prize for documentaries at Sundance. My point? There is a reason we commemorate Memorial Day, regardless of your beliefs about war.

The language in this trailer is NSFW.