Now that we are into the mid to late July time frame, I have decided to get more serious about my volunteer work to support Sen. Obama's historic run for the Presidency. This past weekend I decided to help out by teaming up with my county's canvassing efforts. I had anticipated going this adventure alone as my wife is currently 7 months pregnant, my kids are really too young to care that much about politics, and it was going to be close to 100 degrees that day. Little did I know that my soon to be 7 year old son would take such an interest in my activities for the day, and convince me to take him along.

After meeting with the group of fellow canvassers and getting the run down and training on how the day was to go, my son and I were off to the neighborhood we had been assigned. The drive from the meeting place to the neighborhood was about 20 minutes or so, and afforded us the opportunity to discuss all things political. (Let me tell you, this is a surreal conversation to have with a little boy who's diapers you had changed up until a handful of years ago!) The conversation quickly and predictably turned to his questioning of why I like Obama better than McCain. I gave him my list of top three reason: the war, the environment, and the economy, and tried as best I could to relate them to him in 6 year old terms.

I should say this, my son is quite a deep thinker, is mature for his age, and has always been talked to by his mother and me as such. Knowing this, I was still surprised and amazed by the poignancy of his remark when I started talking about why I like Obama better on the Iraq War issue. I told him the war has been going on for a little over 5 years now and that Obama seems more committed to ending it, to which he responded: "Wow, five years, that is as old as my brother." Such a simple statement, but one which I hadn't considered. That simple statement floored me and really brought it home about how long this war has really dragged out to this point.

My youngest son was born in May of 2003, the war was born in April of 2003. My youngest son, who luckily won't remember much of this when he gets older, has known nothing but a country at war. I think of the other kids his age who have lost their fathers or mothers, or very rarely see them, because of this war. I think of all the things I have done with him, all the big and little accomplishments of his life, and contrast that with how the last 5 years have been for the U.S. and Iraqi soldiers, or the women and little 5 year old Iraqi citizens. And finally, I ultimately think about how we could possibly elect someone for President who could cavalierly say we could be there a hundred or a thousand years, and what that means for the rest of both of my son's lives.

I am tired of this war. I have been tired of this war since it's very inception. I have always had what I felt to be sound reasons for this stance against the war, many of them I have blogged about. Now, five years in, and thanks to my 6 year old son, I have a deeply personal reason to be against this war.