THE LESSON UNLEARNED
I cried today
Remembering that which "ended" six years before I began
I cried today
Over the suffering we caused
Over the suffering we cause
In the name of good
I cried today
We have unlearned everything
-openYourEyes (2005)
I was moved to tears today on the Shonan Shinjuku Line in Tokyo. I wept openly amongst strangers who think me strange by default. What moved me to tears was not anything in my environment, but a poweful account of our nation's forray into Indochina. Today I finished reading The Vietnam Wars: 1945-1990.
I was born after the end of our nation's direct involvement in this conflict. In fact, I didn't come into the world until 1981. All I "knew" of this dark moment in America's history, in the
world's history, I learned from high school history class and the history channel. Despite being suspicious by nature of the established "story" regarding any historical event, I was unprepared for the series of events, beginning in 1945, that would lead to the needless suffering, misery, and death for so many of theirs and ours. Hell, they were all ours. I am from earth. I am a human. We were killing ourselves. All for pride and bravado...all for bullshit.
While I can be overly sensitive at times, I have never cried while studying history. Not until today. I cried at the many chances for peace lost time and again. I cried for the suffering. I cried that, even today, many believe, without credible evidence, that America is "right" by default. I cried because we seem to have unlearned a lesson that cost millions of lives. How many times must we learn and unlearn? When will the vicious cycle be smashed?
We are at it again. Fighting for a cause that doesn't exist. Fighting for a people who don't want us to do so. Fighting in a land that would be better off had we never presumed to understand its complexities. How often must we fit everything to our Procrustean bed? How many blunders will it take until we realize that we don't know what is best for everyone? How many weeping mothers and motherless children? How many?