How Many More?

May 4 2010: Four dead in Ohio (40 years ago today). Two dead in Mississippi 10 days later. 58,148 American soldiers dead in Vietnam. 4,395 dead in Iraq (so far). 1,045 dead in Afghanistan (so far).

We talk about the cost of war in terms of blood and treasure. But America's warlike tendencies take a toll on our national karma and injure our collective psyche.

The deaths at Kent State and Jackson State 40 years ago were unnecessary; so were the deaths at Waco and Ruby Ridge. The deaths in Iraq -- both our soldiers and the civilians -- did not have to happen. I still don't understand why we're in that war.

We have to find another way. It's an emergency. How many more?

This video includes a reading of the poem "Flowers and Bullets" by Yevgeny Yevtushenko.