Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

In noweasel's original piece, I left a comment in memory of Maria Ortiz  that I will repeat here with an additional personal request.  My original comment was a poem, written by the Puerto Rican poet, José Gautier Benítez:

A mis amigos

Cuando no reste ya ni un solo grano
de mi existencia en el reloj de arena,
al conducir mi gélido cadáver,
no olvidéis esta súplica postrera:
no lo encerréis en los angostos nichos
que llenan la pared formando hileras,
que en la lóbrega, angosta galería
jamás el sol de mi país penetra.

El campo recorred del cementerio,
y en el suelo cavad mi pobre huesa;
que el sol la alumbre y la acaricie el aura,
y que broten allí flores y hierbas.

Que yo pueda sentir, si allí se siente,
a mi alrededor y sobre mí, muy cerca,
el vivo rayo de mi sol de fuego
y esta adorada borinqueña tierra.

Here is my poor translation of that piece:

To my friends

When not even a single grain
of my existence is left in the hour glass
and you carry my frozen corpse
don't forget this final wish:
do not lock it up in those narrow niches
that fill the walls forming rows
in the gloomy, narrow gallery where
the sun of my country never penetrates.

In the field across from the cemetery
bury my poor bones in the soil;
so the sun that lights and caresses the dawn
will bring forth flowers and grass there.

That I can feel, if there is feeling,
around me and over me, very close,
the living rays of my fiery Sun
and this adored Puerto Rican land.

Captain Maria Ortiz's family chose to have their beloved buried at Arlington National Cemetery.  That is completely appropriate and I am sure Capt. Ortiz will find rest there among the men and women she loved and loved to serve.  But even with that honor, I feel there is something incomplete.  So I make a request for anyone who can help.  If you can send me a handful of Puerto Rican soil, I will sprinkle it on her grave.  You can reach me via email. 

I offer this out of respect and compassion for her immortal soul and to remind us we are all connected and that we cannot rest until everybody is cared for.