Town pins hopes on a bulletin board

go to original

June 18, 2004

Town pins hopes on a bulletin board

By Susan Palmer 
The Register-Guard
  

 

MONROE - News of war is like the wind rippling across the grass fields around Monroe, gusting hard one minute, gentling to almost nothing the next.

The last couple of weeks, it's been rough, with word of the deaths of four Oregon National Guard soldiers and almost daily news of insurgent attacks.

How's your boy, moms ask each other at the market or the bank.

How's Mike? How's Cody? OK?

Thank God.

Since the war began, the Dari-Mart in the center of town has kept a bulletin board of pictures and mailing addresses of the area's young men and women serving in the armed forces - about 18 in all, stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea and the United States.
~snip~
.
.
.
In fact, it's the small towns in America that seem to be bearing the burden of battle. According to research commissioned by the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, the nation's rural soldiers are dying at twice the rate of troops from cities and suburbs. The research showed that almost half of the dead soldiers come from rural areas, which comprise only 27 percent of the nation's total population.
~snip~



###

Copyright 2004 The Register-Guard
unless labeled as being from the Associated Press (AP),
in which case Copyright 2004 Associated Press