'We die along with these kids'
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Connie Schultz
Plain Dealer Columnist

As Jeanette Schroeder rounded the corner
of her front yard with the lawn mower, she spotted two Marines standing at her brother Paul Schroeder's front door Wednesday.

Immediately, she knew.

"Oh, no!" she sobbed. "Oh, no! Oh, no!"

The two men looked at her, then stepped away from the door and started walking toward her.

She froze.

Her hands released the safety bar on her mower. The street went silent.
As they walked closer, she almost told them, "You've got the wrong house."

But she knew...

... "I hope people forgive me for what I have to say," he began. "I just don't care anymore."

He listed who he blamed for Augie's death.

"I hold the Bush administration responsible, from the president through the secretaries of state and defense and all those who have had a hand in starting this war.

"I also hold every Democrat in Congress who voted to authorize this misadventure as accomplices."

His son, he wrote, "died doing his duty. So have some 1,800 other Americans.

"Augie did his duty at every turn, from being an emergency medical technician while still in high school, a lifeguard, a Boy Scout, an active church member, and, of course, as a Marine. For all this, we consider him a hero.

"To honor him, I no longer can sit still, just keeping quiet and being politically correct."
http://tinyurl.com/eyrrt
*