Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2009 10:19:02 GMT -5
It was May 1971 on the mall in Washington D.C...... a moratorium, an anti-war protest, and by many accounts an effort by the "peace movement" to shut down Washington D.C.
The words were printed on a large white bed sheet. They seemed to scream as I read them, "NOTHING IS WORTH DYING FOR" Could that be true?
Before delving into the why and what I believed was right or wrong with that statement let me produce a capsule version of my personal experience and why I was present.
I was about three years and five months into a 4 year enlistment in the USMC (known to most as the U.S. Marine Corps.... A.K.A. Uncle Sam's Mountain Climbers and sometimes bitterly called Unlimited Shit & Mass Confusion). I had gone on active duty and began basic training on January 10, 1968 (approximately 3 weeks prior to the beginning of the Tet Offensive).
Like many I had enlisted to fulfill my military obligation and to serve my country. The four years that followed would leave me with an incredible load of mixed emotions. Even though my love for my country remained in tack, there were times that I began to question my own patriotism or at least my reasons for being patriotic. Many of the higher ranking individuals were veterans of WWII and Korea, and many of them didn't communicate so well with my generation (the baby boomers). Add to that a congress that didn't have the backbone to provide us with the proper support, a national press that seemed to have turned against us with an ever increasing hatred, and the general public that seemed follow the lead of the press.
The early part of my enlistment was served under Lyndon B. Johnson. Forgive me for speaking ill of the deceased but I'm still convinced he was one of the biggest power broker/crooks that held the office..... well until Richard Nixon came along. To give credit where credit is due, LBJ did push and sign the "Civil Rights Act" into law (with the help of the Republicans in congress, I might add). Richard Nixon was brilliant on foreign policy but he allowed too many people to steer him away from "doing the right thing" and in the process proved to be a scoundrel and the "crook" that he so vehemently denied he was.
By early 1970 I had developed an opposition to the war in Viet Nam (never a declared war BTW). Not an opposition to it's initial purpose but to the way it was being conducted. It was not a war lost in battle but in the U.S. Congress, in the press, in the evening broadcasts, and at the Paris peace talks. I was lost via public relations and North Viet Namese propoganda (Hanoi Jane didn't help matters either).
So with three other friends the trek to Washington was put into plan and off we went. All of us leaning leftward politically for a variety of reasons. I would learn about 36 years later that Doug Heard was also in attendance. We had even occupied the same barracks at New River but had never become acquainted.
My circle of friends were mostly guys who felt used and abused by a lack of leadership and we wanted the war to end. I would carry some of that same bitterness into the civilian world for another decade. But that day in Washington the seed of a different way of thinking was sewn into my mind.
Of all the things I had questioned in my personal journey to where I was and who I was at that moment, I had not questioned whether dying for something was of any value. I had wondered about a variety of causes and whether they were worth dying for but "nothing"
My socio-political way of thinking has gone thru stages of maturity and thinking based on experience and study but that day in May of 1971 I began to question my own motives and thoughts about the value of peace, the significance of my patriotism, and the value of life. I'm convinced that our nation would not be where it is and many of us would not be here if it had not been of those who worked, fought, and even died for a cause. I am convinced that there are many things worth dying for. I can be seen here with 4 of them:
A happy Independence Day to you and yours. Never forget those who made it possible.
The words were printed on a large white bed sheet. They seemed to scream as I read them, "NOTHING IS WORTH DYING FOR" Could that be true?
Before delving into the why and what I believed was right or wrong with that statement let me produce a capsule version of my personal experience and why I was present.
I was about three years and five months into a 4 year enlistment in the USMC (known to most as the U.S. Marine Corps.... A.K.A. Uncle Sam's Mountain Climbers and sometimes bitterly called Unlimited Shit & Mass Confusion). I had gone on active duty and began basic training on January 10, 1968 (approximately 3 weeks prior to the beginning of the Tet Offensive).
Like many I had enlisted to fulfill my military obligation and to serve my country. The four years that followed would leave me with an incredible load of mixed emotions. Even though my love for my country remained in tack, there were times that I began to question my own patriotism or at least my reasons for being patriotic. Many of the higher ranking individuals were veterans of WWII and Korea, and many of them didn't communicate so well with my generation (the baby boomers). Add to that a congress that didn't have the backbone to provide us with the proper support, a national press that seemed to have turned against us with an ever increasing hatred, and the general public that seemed follow the lead of the press.
The early part of my enlistment was served under Lyndon B. Johnson. Forgive me for speaking ill of the deceased but I'm still convinced he was one of the biggest power broker/crooks that held the office..... well until Richard Nixon came along. To give credit where credit is due, LBJ did push and sign the "Civil Rights Act" into law (with the help of the Republicans in congress, I might add). Richard Nixon was brilliant on foreign policy but he allowed too many people to steer him away from "doing the right thing" and in the process proved to be a scoundrel and the "crook" that he so vehemently denied he was.
By early 1970 I had developed an opposition to the war in Viet Nam (never a declared war BTW). Not an opposition to it's initial purpose but to the way it was being conducted. It was not a war lost in battle but in the U.S. Congress, in the press, in the evening broadcasts, and at the Paris peace talks. I was lost via public relations and North Viet Namese propoganda (Hanoi Jane didn't help matters either).
So with three other friends the trek to Washington was put into plan and off we went. All of us leaning leftward politically for a variety of reasons. I would learn about 36 years later that Doug Heard was also in attendance. We had even occupied the same barracks at New River but had never become acquainted.
My circle of friends were mostly guys who felt used and abused by a lack of leadership and we wanted the war to end. I would carry some of that same bitterness into the civilian world for another decade. But that day in Washington the seed of a different way of thinking was sewn into my mind.
Of all the things I had questioned in my personal journey to where I was and who I was at that moment, I had not questioned whether dying for something was of any value. I had wondered about a variety of causes and whether they were worth dying for but "nothing"
My socio-political way of thinking has gone thru stages of maturity and thinking based on experience and study but that day in May of 1971 I began to question my own motives and thoughts about the value of peace, the significance of my patriotism, and the value of life. I'm convinced that our nation would not be where it is and many of us would not be here if it had not been of those who worked, fought, and even died for a cause. I am convinced that there are many things worth dying for. I can be seen here with 4 of them:
A happy Independence Day to you and yours. Never forget those who made it possible.
