Letters

7.

To Sgt. James Buchanan Barnes
107th Infantry Regiment
New York Army National Guard
England, United Kingdom

Brooklyn, NY

Dear James,

I am truly wondering if you are even receiving my letters. And if you do, why on Earth are you not writing back to me? I don’t want to feel like I am wasting my time writing to you. I guess you can tell how much you mean to me, can’t you? Yet here I am, waiting by the door like a madwoman whenever the postman walks past our house. Waiting for a letter from you, waiting for a postcard from you, waiting for as little as a single line from you. But nothing ever comes but bills and promotional flyers…I am growing tired of those.

And still, here I am, writing to you again. I guess it just makes me feel a little better with all those changes that just keep happening knowing that you are reading my letters.

The news reel is still our major source of current events. So is the radio. Everybody either crowds around the few TV’s that are left - and actually functioning - in the neighborhood or listen to the radio every night. This Captain America I have been telling you about him in my other letters - which I really hope you received and read! - is all over the place. Now, he apparently has joined the army, it seems. His pretty little show is all over every single program, and can you believe it, people see him as a beacon of hope. Maybe he’s come by your unit already, they’ve been putting up live shows with dancers and stuff to motivate the soldiers at the front. Must be quite the entertainment, all those long legs and tight costumes. And I cannot help myself and even though I have already told you that I think that he looks just too much like your friend Steve, he does look like him. 

However, U.S. Senator Brandt has this poor schmock touring the nation in an awfully colorful costume to promote war bonds. Dad says that the government is trying to appeal to the public through popular culture. I don’t know what that even means, but bond rallies are being held throughout the country with famous celebrities like Captain America and Hollywood film stars, in the hope to sell even more bonds. The movie theaters show motion pictures, especially war dramas with closing credits advertising patrons to "Buy War Bonds and Stamps", which are constantly being sold in the lobby of the theater, and of course anywhere else. I guess it is a form of propaganda in itself, as it is around our heads all the time. I have to confess, I spent all my money on a couple of Liberty bonds myself. They are sold as debt securities but all in all, they really just are appeals to patriotism and conscience. Mom says that I won’t see any of the money ever again but it is for a good reason, is it not? And we are all in this together. Even the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are selling more bonds than cookies now, all under the slogan "Every Scout to Save a Soldier". 

I am going to be honest, there are times I wonder if it is even worth all the hardship. People struggle to make ends meet, the paychecks get smaller and smaller every week, and the people look haggard and emaciated. Even dad has a peckish expression on his face every day. I can’t complain about the quantity of the food as I don’t eat much to keep my figure, but the quality also dwindles almost every month. The US Food Administration continues to claim that they are helping the housewives of the communities to prepare more nutritious meals with less waste and with optimum use of the foods available yet there are little to no resources at hand. 

Still, we women try to keep the morale high, no matter what the consequences, and many are joining the Red Cross as volunteers to help soldiers and their families. Some even are being drafted and still put on the happy face the world is demanding of them. Yet, while most women are being lauded for their patriotism and support in this great war, there are quite a few who are rallying up to protest against it. They are encouraging an international return to peace. Alice Paul, our heroic advocate for women’s suffrage, already led the National Women’s party in multiple protests at the White House, saying that the United States of America should not have intervened in the first place, as the war began overseas and did not involve us, as the government was still not providing equal rights - as she calls it - basic rights, and assurances to its own citizens, the inhabitants of the USA, the hard working people that are now suffering. 

Well, I guess I am just babbling on about unimportant things - at least, unimportant for you as you are fighting for our country and for us (and as I would like to see it: for me) and risking your life for our country. Yet I think it is important for you to know that there are people that are not as supportive as I think they should be. 

Please, James, write back to me, even if it’s only one line! Please, I beg you. 

I miss you.

Love, Conny