By Jim Belshaw
Of the Journal
The photograph taking up much of Saturday's Metro & N.M. section sent me back to a blogger's final post. Reading it a second time was no easier than the first. Nonetheless, I'm going to ask you to read it, too.
The Journal photo showed military men with the flag-draped casket of Army Capt. Thomas Casey, killed in an ambush in Iraq, buried at the Santa Fe National Cemetery.
Maj. Andrew Olmsted died in that same ambush. He wrote a blog for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver.
Blessed with insight and wit, Olmsted brought depth and understanding to the men and women who go in harm's way at our behest. He allowed us to see them as fully formed human beings, not the superficialities of headlines or political points of view.
I'm going to turn the rest of today's space over to a sampling of Maj. Olmsted's last blog post, written in the event of his death and released by a friend.
I do not have nearly enough room for it all and I urge you to go to a computer and find www.andrewolmsted.com.
The excerpt follows:
"Andrew Olmsted
"January 04, 2008
"Final Post
"This is an entry I would have preferred not to have published, but there are limits to what we can control in life, and apparently I have passed one of those limits. ...
"As with many bloggers, I have a disgustingly large ego, and so I just couldn't bear the thought of not being able to have the last word if the need arose.
"What I don't want this to be is a chance for me, or anyone else, to be maudlin. I'm dead. That sucks, at least for me and my family and friends.
"But all the tears in the world aren't going to bring me back, so I would prefer that people remember the good things about me rather than mourning my loss. (If it turns out a specific number of tears will, in fact, bring me back to life, then by all means, break out the onions.)
"Believe it or not, one of things I will miss most is not being able to blog any longer. The ability to put my thoughts on (virtual) paper and put them where people can read and respond to them has been marvelous. ...
"If there is any hope for the long-term success of democracy, it will be if people agree to listen to and try to understand their political opponents rather than simply seeking to crush them.
"I do ask (not that I'm in a position to enforce this) that no one try to use my death to further their political purposes. I went to Iraq and did what I did for my reasons, not yours. My life isn't a chit to be used to bludgeon people to silence on either side.
"I have my own opinions about what we should do about Iraq, but since I'm not around to expound on them, I'd prefer others not to try and use me as some kind of moral capital to support a position I probably didn't support.
"This is the hardest part. While I certainly have no desire to die, at this point I no longer have any worries. That is not true of the woman who made my life something to enjoy rather something merely to survive. ...
"I cannot imagine being more fortunate in love than I have been with Amanda (his wife) Now she has to go on without me. ... I know this is a terrible burden I have placed on her, and I would give almost anything if she would not have to bear it. ...
"When everything else in my life seemed dark, she was always there to light the darkness ...
" 'I will see you again, in the place where no shadows fall.' ''
- Ambassador Delenn, Babylon 5
"I don't know if there is an afterlife; I tend to doubt it, to be perfectly honest. But if there is any way possible, Amanda, then I will live up to Delenn's words, somehow, some way. I love you."
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