Article submitted to Ladies Home Journal
November 3, 2001
Dealing with grief is always difficult and we would be in deep mourning for Kris no matter how he died. But because he died in the service of his country, that puts a special significance on the fact of his death and life. Kris was extraordinarily special and dear, not a Superman—he admired Nietzsche—but close. He is now a hero, and a worthy one. His death confirms for me that we must go on, one foot in front of the other, and do our ordinary daily things. But we must go on with a renewed sense of love for our families, friends and communities, support for our country, and a greater commitment to those in the world we have neglected or actively hurt.
I am opposed to war on principle and not just because war kills people. War is a symptom of the disease of intolerance and confesses human inability to think creatively. War solves no problems though it may temporarily destroy the opposition. And our humanity with it. We have been attacked in a heinous way and must defend ourselves. I would like the great people of this great nation, founded to establish freedom from religious intolerance, to rise up and demand to our leaders that we fight with food, medical aid, education, establishing productive lives for the Afghani people. Let our dedicated Rangers and other volunteers build schools and hospitals, create jobs for the Afghani women and men, and support them to self-determination in full knowledge of who Americans are—not arrogant and powerful warlords, not naïve pleasure seekers of dubious morals and microwaves—but a generous people who are willing to learn from our mistakes at home and abroad to make the American dream of freedom come true for all people. A joke I heard suggested that we punish the Taliban by educating their women, and for me, that is far more than a joke. Shakespeare said, "A rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance," and something rare is valuable. We cannot truly be free until all are free, fed, clothed, working, and at peace.
Kris’s death motivates me to speak for a new kind of war indeed, a war in which our best minds develop new solutions for human interaction so that we all, all over the world, become the best we can be. Kris did not get that chance fully, and we owe it to him, and to Jonn Edmunds, and to the September 11 victims, to try. Many of the September 11 survivors and families of victims called or wrote to the Stonesifer family to thank us for Kris’ sacrifice and we join them in sorrow and with a renewed determination to create joy and meaning to fill Kris’ absence. He is part of us all now and lives on in the futures he helped us secure.
Aunt Linn (Dr. Linnea Stonesifer Dietrich)
Dr. Dietrich is a Professor of Art History, and Affiliate of Women’s Studies at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio