The War Strikes Home

The war in Iraq has affected all of us, to greater and lesser degrees. Many of you know someone who's fought in Iraq, perhaps someone who has been injured or killed. Earlier this week, a couple more soliders from Minnesota were killed. I haven't seen anything in the Minneapolis newspaper about it, and only a brief blurb on the Twin Cities local television news. A slightly longer story ran on the local news channel out of Mankato. One of the soldiers killed, by an IED, was a young man named Robert Posivio, from Sherburn. Robert was a senior in high school my first year here. He was an average student, a quiet (at least in my class) and decent kid. I don't think I'd seen him since he graduated four years ago. He's not the first student I've had who's died. I know at least one of my former Wabasha-Kellogg students died after my time there. But I think Robert may have been the first one to be killed in war. It brings the reality of what's happening half a world away that much closer.