Never give up on Navy Capt. Speicher
By: Letters to the Editor
October 07, 2004
To the editor:
Goodbye Scott Speicher?
From his own hometown paper?
That is so sad it is sickening. Scott is alive. So you have given up hope that this wonderful brave man will come home alive? Oh ye of little faith. ...
We have been brought together by God from around the world to fight for this man. He has entered our hearts and we have to do this. Why? We just have to. As American citizens, when a soldier falls and is left, aren't we responsible for him? In the history of the United States, we have always fought for peace and freedom whether our own or that of another who is helpless and being controlled by tyrants. If one of our own does this and is left behind on the battlefield, aren't we responsible for this person? If you were the one in Scott's shoes, would you say give up on me? Would you want your country and hometown to say goodbye, there is no hope, you must be dead so we as a paper and as a people are saying goodbye to you and who cares? How can you do that? How is it that you can honestly say goodbye, there is no hope? How?
I want you to tell me how your heart does that? How do you say how sad and goodbye, we just have to let you go now? He is alive. As sure as I know my name and my children and husband, I know beyond a shadow of any doubt this man is alive and unlike you, until my last breath and even into the hereafter, I will not give up and never stop fighting for what is right and just. I will never say goodbye to Scott Speicher. There have been too many good men left behind on the battlefield, with no one who cares about them but those of us few, proud POW/MIA warriors. You want to give up on Scott, you must have given up on all the men left from wars past too. How do you not care that someone is left in hell, forgotten? How does it not burn in your soul that an American soldier is sitting there waiting for someone to fight for him? I am constantly reminded as I fight tooth and nail with naysayers such as your paper, of the old sayings, "Walk a mile in someone else's shoes before you speak" and the golden rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." I am constantly reminded that if someone is in trouble, forgotten, beaten and captive, there are only a select few whose hearts are strong enough and big enough to fight the fight as they have done for us. O ye of little faith, won't you be eating your hat soon?
Julie Arbogast
(Note: Speicher's jet went down in Iraq in 1991.)
©Sun-News of the Northland 2004