It seems like the memories of war have surrounded me all my life. My uncles served in WWII and as a child, sitting in the quiet of my grandfather's porch on warm summer nights, I would hear them whisper their memories. Memories of war were always whispered, never shouted or laughed about because they were hard memories, cruel in their remembrance of fallen friends and neighbors.
As a just graduated senior in 1968 I watched my classmates go off to Viet Nam. I used to sit in front of the TV watching the evening news for a glimpse of their faces and praying that it wasn't one of them being scraped off the ground in that bloody jungle.
I waitressed in the local diner for several years after high school and saw the older boys who'd made it back. They weren't whole. They were shattered inside, riding motorcycles too fast, drinking and smoking pot to help them forget and listening to The Doors on the jukebox to drown out those remembered screams of pain and fear that beat against their eardrums. I said goodbye to those going over for a first or second or third tour. I listened to their whispered stories and held their hands, gave them hair ribbons to take with them for good luck.
Memories of war aren't pretty, aren't soothing, aren't to be taken out and treasured. The memories are there to remind us of the horrors of war and what they did to our friends, our families, our neighbors, and the strangers we pass on the street. We remember, so we never forget those who gave up their lives and their innocence for those of us who remained behind.
Today is for honoring those who fought and fell but its also a time to remember those who returned, beaten down by the horror that is war. I wish that politicians who champion wars were the ones who had to face the guns, maybe then there would be peace in this world.
4 comments:
My brother-in-law earned a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts in Vietnam. He came home and drank himself to death by 29. No one considered that the Marines owed him some counseling.
It's so sad what happens to those brave souls when they come home. The boy on the motorcycle tried to put his life together back together. He got married and had a son but he drank too much and wrapped his bike around a telephone pole.
The military should give a damn for what they make these men go through in the name of patriotism.
Evocative post, Sandra. I was a history major and really, old politicians are responsible for the wars in most cases--even WWII. I'm betting that without the incredibly punitive sanctions against Germany after WWI Hitler wouldn't have come into power.
We need a paradigm shift.
We do need a shift, Conda, but after centuries of wars and knowing that history always repeats itself, I doubt we'll see it in our lifetime.
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