{"id":812,"date":"2007-04-27T13:12:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-27T13:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godspolitics\/2007\/04\/rose-marie-berger-write-to-soldier.html"},"modified":"2007-04-27T13:12:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-27T13:12:00","slug":"rose-marie-berger-write-to-soldier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/04\/rose-marie-berger-write-to-soldier.html","title":{"rendered":"Rose Marie Berger: Write to a Soldier?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mysoldier.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" hspace=\"10\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sojo.net\/images\/blog\/070427_mysoldier.jpg\" align=\"right\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>I\u2019ve gotten a couple of requests from people wanting to know how to contact soldiers. Manhattanville College in New York has a really good <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mysoldier.com\/\">My Soldier Program<\/a> that matches civilians and active duty soldiers for letter exchanges and support. Manhattanville is a college with a strong social justice bent and the program was developed by Iraq veterans in conjunction with students. It puts politics aside while letting U.S. troops know that people back home care. It was co-founded by <a title=\"http:\/\/www.mysoldier.com\/about-more.htm\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mysoldier.com\/about-more.htm\">Sgt. Juan Salas<\/a>, a 23-year-old Manhattanville student who served 14 months in Iraq and is now back on campus. The letters Juan received meant so much to him that he wanted to generate thousands more for troops who are still deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>By enrolling in the <a title=\"http:\/\/www.mysoldier.com\/\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mysoldier.com\/\">My Soldier Program<\/a>, you can \u201cadopt\u201d a soldier. Then you will receive guidelines about what kinds of things a soldier might like to receive, as well as a red \u201cMy Soldier\u201d bracelet. More than 300,000 people have joined the My Soldier Program, volunteering to write to almost 150,000 soldiers. If <a title=\"http:\/\/www.mysoldier.com\/individual-registration.htm\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mysoldier.com\/individual-registration.htm\">you as an individual <\/a>or <a title=\"http:\/\/www.mysoldier.com\/register-groups.htm\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mysoldier.com\/register-groups.htm\">your group<\/a> are looking for a method of connecting with soldiers, I recommend Manhattanville\u2019s My Soldier Program. Once you join, you can <a title=\"http:\/\/www.mysoldier.com\/downloads\/StarterKit.pdf\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mysoldier.com\/downloads\/StarterKit.pdf\">download a starter kit<\/a> and off you go! (Additionally, if you know <a title=\"http:\/\/www.mysoldier.com\/soldier-signup.htm\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mysoldier.com\/soldier-signup.htm\">soldiers looking for letter exchanges with civilians<\/a>, they also can sign up at the My Soldier Program.)<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, though it\u2019s difficult to write to Iraqis, there are a couple of blogs that can foster connection. Check out <a title=\"http:\/\/raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com\/\" href=\"http:\/\/raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com\/\">Raed in the Middle<\/a> and <a title=\"http:\/\/riverbendblog.blogspot.com\/\" href=\"http:\/\/riverbendblog.blogspot.com\/\">Baghdad Burning<\/a>. Let us know of other people-to-people connections with Iraqis.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rose Marie Berger<\/strong> is an associate editor of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sojo.net\/index.cfm?action=magazine.home\"><em>Sojourners<\/em><\/a><em> <\/em>magazine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve gotten a couple of requests from people wanting to know how to contact soldiers. Manhattanville College in New York has a really good My Soldier Program that matches civilians and active duty soldiers for letter exchanges and support. Manhattanville is a college with a strong social justice bent and the program was developed by&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":379,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rose Marie Berger: Write to a Soldier? - God&#039;s Politics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/04\/rose-marie-berger-write-to-soldier.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rose Marie Berger: Write to a Soldier? - God&#039;s Politics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019ve gotten a couple of requests from people wanting to know how to contact soldiers. Manhattanville College in New York has a really good My Soldier Program that matches civilians and active duty soldiers for letter exchanges and support. Manhattanville is a college with a strong social justice bent and the program was developed by&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/04\/rose-marie-berger-write-to-soldier.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"God&#039;s Politics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-04-27T13:12:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.sojo.net\/images\/blog\/070427_mysoldier.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gp_intern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rose Marie Berger: Write to a Soldier? - God&#039;s Politics","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/04\/rose-marie-berger-write-to-soldier.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rose Marie Berger: Write to a Soldier? - God&#039;s Politics","og_description":"I\u2019ve gotten a couple of requests from people wanting to know how to contact soldiers. Manhattanville College in New York has a really good My Soldier Program that matches civilians and active duty soldiers for letter exchanges and support. Manhattanville is a college with a strong social justice bent and the program was developed by&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/04\/rose-marie-berger-write-to-soldier.html","og_site_name":"God&#039;s Politics","article_published_time":"2007-04-27T13:12:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.sojo.net\/images\/blog\/070427_mysoldier.jpg"}],"author":"gp_intern","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/04\/rose-marie-berger-write-to-soldier.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/04\/rose-marie-berger-write-to-soldier.html","name":"Rose Marie Berger: Write to a Soldier? - God&#039;s Politics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/04\/rose-marie-berger-write-to-soldier.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/04\/rose-marie-berger-write-to-soldier.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.sojo.net\/images\/blog\/070427_mysoldier.jpg","datePublished":"2007-04-27T13:12:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-04-27T13:12:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/#\/schema\/person\/cdd0d36f3f2e1667662d6db39e7e2fba"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/04\/rose-marie-berger-write-to-soldier.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/04\/rose-marie-berger-write-to-soldier.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/04\/rose-marie-berger-write-to-soldier.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.sojo.net\/images\/blog\/070427_mysoldier.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.sojo.net\/images\/blog\/070427_mysoldier.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/2007\/04\/rose-marie-berger-write-to-soldier.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rose Marie Berger: Write to a Soldier?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/","name":"God&#039;s Politics","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/#\/schema\/person\/cdd0d36f3f2e1667662d6db39e7e2fba","name":"gp_intern","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"gp_intern"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/author\/gp_intern"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/379"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godspolitics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}