Blood, Guts, Death, Destruction is what war brings. You cannot glorify war for there is no glory to be found when the body bags come home. You can only mourn and honor that final sacrifice of a life lost in a far away war.
The savage wars of peace.......The ports ye shall not enter, The roads ye shall not tread, Go make them with your living, and mark them with your dead!...
There is much I could write about the current wars we are fighting or the wars before and after Vietnam war. But after watching the PBS Memorial Day program last night, being a child of the 60's, what it brought back for me was my generation's war. That was the carnage, the destruction, the deaths, the pain of the Vietnam war that divided a nation and that pain fills my heart today. Those that did come back whose lives were forever changed, many with their minds destroyed, are the veterans that you see begging on the roadways and street corners today, all these decades later. Their treatment on returning home and particularly under Reagan is a nation's shame. These are soldiers who have died a different kind of death than just those on the battlefields.
Vietnam War: If You Grew up in the 60's, you know that the war affected each and everyone of us, in so many ways. As we watched our friends and neighbors, our loved ones shipped off to war. And then we watched as their bodies came home. We attended their funerals and we honored them, and mourned the loss of their young lives. So many, so young.
There are those still listed as Missing In Action, whose names are on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. And then there are the dead, just so many dead soldiers. Thousands upon thousands of dead soldiers.
There is also a time to remember who we were, what we were back then and what we have since lost as a country; our power; to make our voices heard.
We asked, "what are we fighting for?"
We asked, "Hey hey LBJ, How many kids did you kill today?"
We marched, we protested. The war escalated, the death and carnage escalated. We marched and protested more and we united against the war.
And we listened to the wise words of Reverend Martin Luther King:
There is a Time to Break the Silence
Remembering The War in Vietnam.....to remember them forever in their youth, and in our hearts. Those 58,000 names..........
gone now forever and alive only in our memories.
On this Memorial Weekend, remembering the Vietnam War that took so many lives, and a time of remembering who we were, what we were back then and what we have since lost as a country; our power; to make our voices heard, to bring about change.
Remembering the power of the people back then:
John Lennon, Power To The People
They are more than just a name on a wall.....
Over 58,000 names of those who died or were listed as missing in the Vietnam War are carved in the black granite memorial, which begins with the inscription: "In honor of the men and women of the Armed Forces of the United States who served in the Vietnam War. The names of those who gave their lives and of those who remain missing are inscribed in the order they were taken from us."
THE WALL
The Washington Times makes the Vietnam Wall searchable online.
A digital image of the wall —actually thousands of photos fused together —locates each veteran’s name where it appears on the memorial. From there, any visitor to The Times site can leave their stories and remembrances or upload photos of veterans. Start by clicking on the "Search the Wall" box, where you can select "Search" or "View." Once you find the name of a soldier, you can add your stories or photos.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/...
Bruce Springsteen - War
Arlo Guthrie-When a soldier makes it home.