The columns usually include items about community events or whimsical musings on family — the kind of stuff you'd imagine your grandmother talking about as she scooped the ice cream onto your pie plate. Collins used her columns to help collect care packages for US troops in Iraq, and that was as political as things got.

But on Aug. 8, Collins' grandson, Marine Lance Cpl. Jonathan Collins of Crystal Lake, Ill., was killed by small-arms fire in Iraq's Anbar province. Hometown news accounts quoted Alice Collins as saying she begged Jonathan not to join the military, in part because her only brother was killed in Vietnam.

Collins had held back her emotions in print — until the Oct. 12 "Cookies 'N Chaos." Wedged between the "Merchandise $100 or less" listings and a display ad for double-hung windows was a piece entitled "We Are But One Family." Collins, in an e-mail interview, said neither the paper nor her column's sponsor requires her to seek permission for what she writes. "Controversy is a part of life and as a columnist, I feel privileged to address it," Collins wrote in her e-mail.

With Collins' permission, Flak is reproducing the piece in its entirety — until now, it hasn't appeared on the Web.

WE ARE BUT ONE FAMILY

I can think of over a thousand reasons why George Bush should not be re-elected as President of the United States of America. They are the names of the young servicemen and servicewomen who have paid the ultimate price, the sacrifice of their lives, in a war whose premises have proven to be false.

You can search the list of those killed in action from top to bottom. Among all the names of Marines and Soldiers there is not one son or daughter belonging to a Congressman, Congresswoman, or the President and his cabinet. Do I wish the horror of losing a loved one upon any of them? ABSOLUTELY NOT! for the pain and the grief that have been thrust upon over one thousand families are in the words of one Mother,

"Living Hell here on earth."

The rich and powerful have surreptitious ways to keep their families from active duty in the military and schemes that allow them to profit from the rebuilding of Iraq. While they count their money, the middle class families of dead Marines and Soldiers pile up their sympathy cards.

If John Kerry is elected President can he rush in and end this nightmare? Probably not at first, but one thing is for sure. A man who has fought, who has watched friends suffer and die, who has witnessed first hand the horrific inferno of war and its life long consequences, remembers forever all that he saw, heard and did. That man will do all in his power to bring an end to another generation's suffering and death. This I believe.

For archives, audio, and background about the column, click here.

We are but one family, and yet, the death of Jonathan Collins, USMC has touched hundreds of people: former classmates, neighbors, families, friends, strangers, you, Dear Readers, and countless others. Who can count the tears that have been shed? Who can measure the heartache that begins and ends each new day? How do you comfort two teen-age sisters, Lauren and Devon, who walk through each school day trying not to cry on the outside, while inside their young hearts sob? How can nightmares and fear and loss that have carved a crater in their innocent souls ever be closed? And what of Brandon, the big brother who, as a child, would not go to a party unless his kid brother, Jonathan, was invited too? Part of Brandon is forever gone, that part of his life, that he freely gave to Jonathan alone. The antics they shared, the goofy jokes, the pillow fights, the love that wasn't always expressed in words but rather the hugs they still gave each other, and the pride that gleamed in Brandon's eyes the day Jonathan graduated boot camp at Camp Pendleton. I watch him now, twenty-one years young, and his shoulders bend with heavy sorrow. He epitomized the words, "He ain't heavy, Father, he's my brother." But now there is no brother to carry, only memories that weigh them down with a broken heart.

We have watched our vivacious, beautiful daughter-in-law, Angel, age before our eyes as she walks through each dreaded day in a trance of grief and loss so raw the finality and reality of what she must endure forevermore have become a vise around her heart. And our son, Jack, trying so hard to be the rock for his family, to hold them close with his love and faith. Does he cry in the shower, does the emptiness sear night and day? I am his mother, and the face I love to gaze upon, is etched with sadness that rips me apart.

We are but one family, and there are over a thousand more, just like us.

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At the conclusion of the Feb. 27, 1968, CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite delivered a commentary based on his experience reporting from Vietnam in the aftermath of the Viet Cong's infamous Tet Offensive a month before. Cronkite didn't use the word "quagmire," but that's what he described. After hearing the commentary, President Lyndon Johnson reportedly turned off his TV set and declared to his aides, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America." Five weeks later, Johnson shocked the nation by announcing he would not run for a second term.

Maybe it's going overboard to suggest that another Cronkite-type moment has occurred with Alice Collins in the pages of the PennySaver, but President Bush had better realize that if he loses more Alice Collins's, he'll have lost middle America.

E-mail Bob Cook at bobc@flakmag.com.

— graphic by Derek Evernden (derek@ocellus.net)