Thanks so much to JustJules over at the Blogging Network (blogit.com) for letting us know about the film, "Going Upriver, the Long War of John Kerry." I'm thankful it will be on DVD soon because I'd much prefer to watch it in private. I don't have a tragic tale personally, because my husband survived the war physically - a bit messed up in the head, but that's to be expected.
But it was such a hard, crushing time. We were being whipped into submission by an insane world of bureaucratic adults who wanted to strip away any remaining idealism and hope we had for our future and the future of mankind. The hope, of course, that Kennedy inspired in us and our parents inspired in us by their grand example of strength, courage and survival during the depression and WWII, made us believe we could end the madness of nuclear bombs we'd been on the lookout for since we were seven. Our folks loved us, we had grand purpose, and we would make the world a better place. As young adults, we were catchers in the rye who would keep the little kids safe. Well, it sure didn't turn out that way, did it?
When we got out of college, my husband's only alternative to being infantry was to enlist in OCS to become an officer in Viet Nam. Before he left for the war we were at a high profile wedding where some of those type people who would be voting for Bush/Cheney today patted him on the back and asked him if he was taking me and our kids along (as well as our '65 Mustang). By the time he landed in country, he at least had captain's rank which basically meant he had a bit better chance of survival, especially when it came to being fragged by his own men. He lead truck convoys into Cambodia the night Nixon was on tv saying we had no troops there. And his buddy who had gone on to law school was teaching third grade now to avoid the draft. His other buddy, though, had enlisted in the MARINES! and was in OCS at Quantico, headed for Viet Nam. Today the draft dodger is a Republican judge and the guy who enlisted is a Democratic book editor fighting against the madness in Iraq.
Morsel by morsel our flesh was stripped of innocence in a way our kids today would never understand because they are much more aware than we ever were that the bogey man is real and in their own back yard. Good for them. Some of us have grown to adulthood with a hyper vigilance against being duped again by the very people who are elected to serve us, not the other way around. I hope against hope that we can also teach our kids that, with due diligence and with the great tools of communication in the hands of everyman, the bogey man can be caught. Like Jason and Freddy, he may keep coming back - what a shelf life the bogey man has! - but he gets less scary each time. Still, never turn your back and sleep with the light on, especially if Bush gets reselected.
Oh, mercy, just thinking of Bush/Cheney for four more years makes my fingers quiver in horror.
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