Of Mice and Soldiers

A List Of Mice


Recently, I have had a slight mouse problem in my house. Despite advice from many, I decided not to kill them with snap-traps, but to use traps that trap them, but cause no harm.  They then are supposed to get released at least a mile away, so that they don't come back.  That was the plan...

Please see the videos regarding the mice on this Playlist (Wildlife), and start at the sixth video down, "Jumper and "his" Mother".  So that was the mice.

As I was dealing with this, more and more people told me I was "nuts" to risk hantavirus, or Lyme disease, or to risk my dog and her liver failure from mouse-carried disease, that mice are "vermin", and "disposable". Well, so, maybe.....  But as these comments kept coming at me, and in parallel to comments made about immigrants, or mentally ill, (by Trump, as he refers to himself), I realized something.  Jumper and his mother kept coming back to my house. As if there was a reason.  I found myself making a "List of Mice".

I have some pent-up anger going on about the 7800+ MIA Korean War. First, I only found out about them in any detail about a month and a half ago, as I ran across something to do with my Quilts For Veterans Project.  Then, it dawned on me, slowly, that it has been 67 years, and our administrations at the federal level have all but forgotten these soldiers.  7800+ men.  Or mice. Because to our country right now, these soldiers seem disposable. They're dead already.  And I remember a time when the thought of leaving them behind in any way would have had a hush over the entire country.  Because it IS a sacrilege.

My father Served in the United States Army during 1951-1953, yes, during the Korean War. He was sent to Occupied Germany instead of Korea. He came home.  If he had been sent to Korea, and had been killed, his name would be on the lists of MIA.  Now, Germany was no picnic, he was shot at daily.  He was scared much of the time. But he did come home.

And yet, what if he had been sent to Korea?  Are we only to take care of our own families? to stay within our small circles and say "tough luck, and thank you" to those families with no closure?

I am a Fine Artist, a pen and ink artist who also works in other media. My "List of Mice" is really a "List of Soldiers". I plan on writing their names. By State. And then mailing the hand-written list to members of Congress who somehow don't have time to Read Their Names, Bring Them Home.

7800+ MIA Korean War - do you know where YOUR uncle /father /brother /sister /mother /cousin died? Did they come home?

I will post updates here as I complete lists and as I mail them.

Laurie A.E. O'Meara
Massachusetts