We’re number one!

Conard High School whipped up on rival Hall to snag the top ranking of any of Connecticut’s public high schools in Newsweek’s listing of the best 1,200 high schools in America. Hall made the list as well, along withFarmington, Fairfield Warde, Ridgefield, Wilton, Greenwich, New Fairfield, Weston, East Lyme and Pomperaug high schools.

While I don’t have much use for these sorts of lists, I’d rather see my town’s high schools doing well than poorly so congratulations to both Hall and Conard, as well as the school system that allows both to flourish. Oh, yes, and thanks to the taxpayers who willingly foot the bill because they know a great educational system is crucial to both our future and our home values.

Newsweek’s stunning new issue

Scrawled across the cover of the April 2 issue of Newsweek are a soldier’s words, in his own writing: “Any day I’m here could be the day I die.”

What follows inside is an extraordinary, deeply sad and wonderful look into the lives of our fallen troop — in their own words. It’s full of excerpts from letters, emails, instant messages, audio recordings and more that our warriors left behind after war took them from us forever.

Every reminder that so many of our soldiers are dying daily is a good thing, but this issue is a gift from Newsweek to America. It’s not particularly political in the narrow sense of bashing or bolstering President Bush, but it leaves an unmistakable impression that we’ve lost far too much.

Just looking at the pictures of men cuddling their babies breaks your heart, over and over and over.

I know the war is hell, that soldiers who perish leave gaping wounds at home, that battles grind up more than bodies. They blow up dreams. They shatter families. They leave a wreckage that goes far beyond the pieces of metal on a distant ground.

But what I realized as I read the words of these slain soldiers is that this war’s price is far too high for whatever it is that we’re getting out of it. After four years of conflict, it’s increasingly hard to see beyond the death toll, to see any vision at all for a future that isn’t just soaked in more patriots’ blood.

Bring ’em home.