Not Just Another Pin

I'm watching M*A*S*H again. The most interesting thing is that this seems to be the show that speaks the most to my worries right now.

This episode features a general who loses his son. The general sets up camp at the hospital unit and continues to send out orders while he waits for news on his son. After he loses his son, he becomes philosophical and says that all the boys who are fighting are simply pins on a board.

It's interesting to be in the position of commanding troops as a general does. There are many good men who fight, whether because they are forced to or because they choose to. To a general, the soldiers they send to different places are not always seen as people. They can simply be different coloured pins that are stuck on a map.

When the casualty numbers come out in the newspapers, or are covered up in the newspaper, they can sometimes seem like just numbers. Every number though is more than just a number. The men and women who are fighting in various countries in the world are each unique individuals who have lives and families far away from the war. They have likes and dislikes and people who are going to miss them if they don't come back from the war.

While there will be pins in the map that show the numbers, there is no way to show on the map the faces of those who are in the field. There is no way to show their families or their hobbies. There is no way to show what the world will be missing without the people who have been lost.

The men and women who are fighting in all the places in the world are more than just pins. They are so much more.