Shopping for Smokes

Cigarettes and chewing tobacco are on my list to purchase on Black Friday. Along with a bunch of other stuff, these items will be shipped in care packages to our troops in Afghanistan. A military family in nearby O'Fallon, MO, has been shipping goodie boxes to troops for about four years. I visited their website, www.americanherocarepackages.com, and immediately felt that this effort is something I want to join. I like that their appeal includes tobacco products. It reminds me that wars are fought by real young men and women--a lot of whom smoke, drink beer and would love to be home driving too fast, staying out too late and not listening to mom. In a perfect world, we wouldn't have war. In a fantasy world, wars would be fought by frontlines and support teams filled with clean-cut, poster boy super heroes imprevious to bullets and IEDs. But that's not our world. If our battle-tested young, and the career soldiers who lead them, can take time for a smoke I provide, that's my little thank you. When they come back and have time to focus, I hope they'll quit the tobacco habit, as it's a nasty one. Long term, life without cigarettes lasts longer, much like life without war.