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Josh's Christmas List

Jingle bells ringing everywhere you go;

Christmas is coming - but will there be snow?

I bet your list for Santa was already made out;

Were you good this year? Without a doubt.



You'll always be more than "a six year old boy";

You had a name, a life, and brought such joy.

I bet you were a good son and a good friend;

And had lots of sunny days playing without end.



I am angry at the breakdown of machine and humanity;

That cost you your life and your parents their sanity.

It's hard for me to grasp how pilots could mistake;

Simple calculations that determined your fate.



I am ashamed by our media which underplays

The value of life because it's not what pays.

How distorted our priorities have become;

What means the world to a few means nothing to some.



If I could wish anything for Christmas, be it small or bold;

I'd have Santa bring you back to Mommy and Daddy to hold.

If it took moving the Heaven, Earth, and stars in the sky;

I'd pay that price to bring you back and comfort their cry.



So much joy you brought in your short time on Earth;

So much more than anything your life is worth.

Surely by now you know how much you are missed,

And what Mommy and Daddy still have on their Christmas list.

Author's Notes/Comments: 

I am an engineer, turned financial analyst, with a 21 month old son...and while allowing the engineer in me to view YouTube for plane crashes to analyze them (hey, I have weird hobbies!), I came across the Southwest Airlines runway overshoot of Dec 8, 2005 at Chicago, IL O'Hare airport.

That led me to search the web for "a 6 year old boy" as the articles wrote. Then I thought, how terrible it is for Joshua Woods and his family to see his life reduced in the media to "a 6 year old boy". And then to think, how reactive, and not pro-active, the airlines, the NTSB, the FAA, and our government is about so many things. Those pilots did make a simple miscalculation for the reverse thrusters that they KNEW better than to avoid, but they got lazy. And a sweet boy paid with his life on his way back home from a family outing to a local McDonald's.

It all just started making me sad - sad for Joshua and his family, and very angry at the way the media devalue life. So I thought it deserved my time and attention to write him and his family a small poem, and to stick it in the eye of uncaring media who have reduced his life to a fractional sentence "a six year old boy". The little solider deserves better than that. For anyone wanting to learn about his story, all you have to do is Google "Joshua Woods" and you will see a tribute page that his parents put together:

www.joshua-woods-2005.memory-of.com

So, Josh, I don't know you pal, nor your family, but I hope you will see this from up in Heaven, and know that you will never be forgotten. I also hope your parents and family can take some small comfort in knowing there are people out there who care, who cry, still to this day, even if total strangers, even if separated by great distances, over your passing. So here you are, buddy, this one's for you.

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last updated 11 October 2010 - 4:44am
©3 January 2008 - 3:44am — buchanac