Civilians are Released! 3/4/08

Well, obviously my brilliant editorial from yesterday worked! "Someone" took my words to heart and after two weeks' grounding, civilians were officially released today, with no restrictions.
Military are still restricted, with curfew & alcohol limitations. This decision sounds more reasonable to me, although it's still difficult for the majority of military, who have NOT misbehaved or broken laws. I became aware of how much I was generalizing about the "military being to blame" for our grounding, when I was shopping last week for Cody's birthday. There was a young man in fatigues who was shopping near me and somehow we started talking about "being trapped like rats" and I said I felt like a teenager who's been grounded for something she didn't do. His response was: "Welcome to my world. . ." Blanket punishment wasn't fair for any of us who were always good ambassadors in Japan.

So, I'm reminded of all those years when our children complained about unfair circumstances in their lives & we told them that "Life is not fair." It's still a very hard lesson for me to learn . . .