I don't mean running up to Vets and doing it one by one, though that's not a bad idea.
I mean a well-publicized official, ceremonial event where somebody with influence, position and corresponding power actually asks Vietnam veterans to forgive the people of this nation for how they were treated during and after the war.
I don't mean an "honoring" ceremony per se, lauding their sacrifice for this country. That's different and it's been done by some. I mean humbling ourselves as a nation, officially recognizing that a great wrong has been done by us, the people. Collectively. No one making excuses or saying "yeah, but" for any reason...
Hasn't this been done already? Evidently not. Talking too "recent" veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq, one 52 and another 25 years old, they both made comments about Vietnam.
"I'm so glad we're past Vietnam and how those soldiers were treated by the public," said Lt. Col. Victor Zillmer of the Army's Corp of Engineers. "I'm very thankful people everywhere have been very supportive and that means a lot to us. We serve the people and politics has no part of it. I think ever soldier feels the same way."
Zillmer's comment reveals that soldiers today still think about Viet-nam and how America shot its own wounded. Vietnam vets have memories no other veterans have to deal with. It's the healing of those memories I'm talking about. There are just some things a ribbon, or a wall sculpture or a "thank you for serving" won't touch.
They need to hear us say, "Please forgive us. We were wrong."
I was chatting with Lt. Justin Lee for a Memorial Day story when he stopped, realizing I'd been present during the Vietnam War years.
"What was that like?" he asked. "How did people really react to the vets coming home?"
My mind reeled. In front of me was a young man who hadn't a real idea of what it felt like to be an American male during the Vietnam War. I'm 54 now and I realized I held a key to our past the younger generation can only grasp at.
What to tell the young lieutenant? Images of citizens shouting, "Hell no, we won't go" or crowds singing "Country Joe" McDonald's anthem of the late '60s "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag" or violent protests meeting GIs after they got off the plane from "in-country" flashed before my eyes. I can feel it now.
"It was a time when soldiers were thought of by many people as agents of an abusive power," I said, finally, feeling helpless to paint the big picture. "Some people felt betrayed by their own government. Some protesters, who didn't know much, only knew they were being asked to potentially die for something they didn't understand. The soldiers took the heat."
Lee shook his head.
"I'm glad I didn't have to go through that," he said.
The Vietnam ghost is still with us and not just as a comparison to current events. It's in the far-reaching memories of the young men and women who came home to an aggressive atmosphere and still recall the uncomfortable and perhaps searing experience.
Who among us easily forgets a single insult or comment said in spite? If Christians in particular want a "scriptural" basis to ask forgiveness, take another look at Matthew 5:23: "If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, first go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift."
It has been far too long that the spectacle of how we, us, treated our soldiers, is still lingering in the minds of new and old veterans alike. We need to put it to rest. And we need to do it while the Vietnam Vets are still alive. We need to identify with the wrong done to them as "our" wrong, even "my wrong," not someone Else's, taking collective responsibility and enabling this healing to our national psyche.
Back in 1971, I wrote letters to soldiers - strangers, while they were in Vietnam. I wasn't angry at them. But I'm embarrassed they were reviled at home and I'm not going to point fingers at who was responsible.
We're responsible. Us. They were our soldiers. They're our people. I hope, wish, that every religious leader on this Memorial Day Sunday will ask Vietnam vets in their congregation for forgiveness. We need to do it for them first, and then for us.
Vietnam Vets, please forgive us. We didn't really know what we were doing. It was our pride and arrogance that got in the way, thinking more of our ourselves than of you. There really is no excuse for it. We'd be grateful if you forgave us and let us embrace you once again, and that in turn you would honor us by embracing us as well.
God bless you.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Saturday, September 22, 2007
From the Heart of a Vietnam Veteran
From the Heart of a Vietnam Veteran
It seems so many have forgotten the meaning of Veterans Day. But what makes it so special a day that every American should take a moment to reflect, and thank those who served?
Veterans Day isn't simply about the men and women who served in the Armed Forces of this great country. It's about their sacrifices, heroism, and unselfish dedication to the United States of America. It's about their willingness to lay down their lives for the ideals on which this country was founded. It's about sacrificing their lives so someone else may live.
It's about giving their all that others may have freedom. It's about fighting in the mountains, jungles and deserts in a foreign land, in the hope the same battles will never have to be fought in their homeland.
It's about fighting oppression to allow others the power to express their opinions and views, without fear of reprisal and sanction.
It's about vowing to "leave no one behind" and carrying a comrade in arms from the battlefield on your shoulders in the hopes he will live, but knowing that at the very least, he will be buried in his beloved country.
It's about enduring the horror of war in the hopes your children will never have to do the same. It's about laying in the mud, or sand or in a hole, and praying that the shelling will end. And looking at your buddies alongside you, and whispering words of hope and encouragement.
It's about being dead tired and still finding the strength to go on, sometimes when the odds are so heavily against you that it almost appears hopeless.
It's about the doctors and nurses who endure hell with you and work tirelessly tending the wounded. It's about visiting a buddy in the hospital and reassuring him that he'll be OK. It's about writing a letter home for someone who will never return home.
It's about writing that letter for yourself, just in case you are one of the unlucky ones, and putting it in your pack where it would be found.
It's about cursing and swearing and praying and hoping. It's about crying and smiling, sometimes at the same time. It's about working and fighting side by side. It's about a common goal, where personal wants and needs are forgotten. It's about the sharing of a smoke or a candy bar, or cookies sent from home.
It's about the looks on the face of a serviceman when he sees death and carnage for the first time.
And it's about the face and smile of a child who has been rescued from the ravages of war, even if only for a while.
It's about the fields of white crosses and rows of simple bronze markers in cemeteries throughout the country, marking the graves of brave men and women. It's about the graves on foreign shores where many died in the name of freedom, but who never were able to come home.
It's for the veteran shedding a tear while remembering friends and comrades from long ago.
It's for the prisoners of war who endured the misery and torture of captivity in enemy hands.
It's for those who venture out in storms because the book says they have to, but the book doesn't say they have to return.
And it's for the families of those brave men and women, who fight a personal battle every day their loved ones are gone.
No, Veterans Day isn't simply a specified moment in time. It's a day where every one of us needs to thank those who served this great country, both the living and those who have passed on. Those of us who served will never forget them; please take a moment to remember them too.
Veterans Day isn't simply about the men and women who served in the Armed Forces of this great country. It's about their sacrifices, heroism, and unselfish dedication to the United States of America. It's about their willingness to lay down their lives for the ideals on which this country was founded. It's about sacrificing their lives so someone else may live.
It's about giving their all that others may have freedom. It's about fighting in the mountains, jungles and deserts in a foreign land, in the hope the same battles will never have to be fought in their homeland.
It's about fighting oppression to allow others the power to express their opinions and views, without fear of reprisal and sanction.
It's about vowing to "leave no one behind" and carrying a comrade in arms from the battlefield on your shoulders in the hopes he will live, but knowing that at the very least, he will be buried in his beloved country.
It's about enduring the horror of war in the hopes your children will never have to do the same. It's about laying in the mud, or sand or in a hole, and praying that the shelling will end. And looking at your buddies alongside you, and whispering words of hope and encouragement.
It's about being dead tired and still finding the strength to go on, sometimes when the odds are so heavily against you that it almost appears hopeless.
It's about the doctors and nurses who endure hell with you and work tirelessly tending the wounded. It's about visiting a buddy in the hospital and reassuring him that he'll be OK. It's about writing a letter home for someone who will never return home.
It's about writing that letter for yourself, just in case you are one of the unlucky ones, and putting it in your pack where it would be found.
It's about cursing and swearing and praying and hoping. It's about crying and smiling, sometimes at the same time. It's about working and fighting side by side. It's about a common goal, where personal wants and needs are forgotten. It's about the sharing of a smoke or a candy bar, or cookies sent from home.
It's about the looks on the face of a serviceman when he sees death and carnage for the first time.
And it's about the face and smile of a child who has been rescued from the ravages of war, even if only for a while.
It's about the fields of white crosses and rows of simple bronze markers in cemeteries throughout the country, marking the graves of brave men and women. It's about the graves on foreign shores where many died in the name of freedom, but who never were able to come home.
It's for the veteran shedding a tear while remembering friends and comrades from long ago.
It's for the prisoners of war who endured the misery and torture of captivity in enemy hands.
It's for those who venture out in storms because the book says they have to, but the book doesn't say they have to return.
And it's for the families of those brave men and women, who fight a personal battle every day their loved ones are gone.
No, Veterans Day isn't simply a specified moment in time. It's a day where every one of us needs to thank those who served this great country, both the living and those who have passed on. Those of us who served will never forget them; please take a moment to remember them too.
The veteran who wrote this wishes to remain anonymous.
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