It’s been nearly seven years since our country entered Afghanistan. And then Iraq. I’m well aware that people are dying over there every day but since I don’t personally know anyone involved in this crazy war, I’m emotionally disconnected.

Or so I thought. I didn’t realize that I knew a war hero. Who’d have thunk it, that among my progressive thinking, New York liberal, artsy fartsy high school buddies, one of us would go off to war? And get killed?

I didn’t know Danny Farkas all that well. He was the skinny kid who hung out with the production crew (my high school had a great AV program). He was a friend of a friend more than a friend of mine. When I saw him at our high school reunion back in 2003, I couldn’t believe how buff he was. “Where’s that skinny kid?” I asked him.

I received an email this morning from a fellow ex classmate that Danny was killed in Kabul on July 4th in a non-hostile incident that is being investigated.

Danny was a NYC Police Lieutenant in the 112th Pct. in Forest Hills and an Army National Guardsman. Funeral will be held Monday in Midwood, Brooklyn.