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Thomas Vorce reporting from Grass Valley, CA
Saturday, April 17, 2004
All through the 70’s and 80’s I made it a point to be around Vets that came back from the war in Viet Nam. I was determined to do what I could and I drank with them, talked with them and opened my home to them whenever I could. It was often difficult and frustrating.
I had learned of soldiers who returned from WW II that had many of the same problems. They were often given morphine to reduce their tremors and many went on to use heroin when it was first seen as a cure for the morphine addiction they had acquired during the war.
The closest most of us have gotten to the battle scene is Copolla’s “Apocalypse Now.” I had hoped that we would have learned from that war but I was wrong. Someone is always trying to up the anty.
But that was then and this is now and I suffer to think what kind of basket cases this war is going to create. The conditions in Fulugia are unthinkable and the abandonment of values is complete. Once again, women and children and snipering at ambulances are part of the butchery of an occupying force (that is there to provide democracy.)
In the last twenty years public relations agencies have become very successful at euphemisms: using our language (that we so desperately need) to communicate special interests. Leaving communication so thoroughly compromised that the vernacular is the only thing that seems to account for anything.
Having eviscerated the liberal arts in America, capitalism has gone on to kill by the numbers. How many of us will forget the daily “body counts” on TV during the war in Viet Nam? Now it doesn’t even matter unless it’s one of ours and PR would prefer that we only do that for the record.
For the first time in my life I actually believe that we are wrong. And no amount a beating our chests will avail us of the inevitable. It is no longer an economic opportunity to join the army and become a killer because there are no jobs left in America. Where is the leadership that can rise to this occasion?
A major artery is about to break open and it will not be a condition to swoon over.
I had learned of soldiers who returned from WW II that had many of the same problems. They were often given morphine to reduce their tremors and many went on to use heroin when it was first seen as a cure for the morphine addiction they had acquired during the war.
The closest most of us have gotten to the battle scene is Copolla’s “Apocalypse Now.” I had hoped that we would have learned from that war but I was wrong. Someone is always trying to up the anty.
But that was then and this is now and I suffer to think what kind of basket cases this war is going to create. The conditions in Fulugia are unthinkable and the abandonment of values is complete. Once again, women and children and snipering at ambulances are part of the butchery of an occupying force (that is there to provide democracy.)
In the last twenty years public relations agencies have become very successful at euphemisms: using our language (that we so desperately need) to communicate special interests. Leaving communication so thoroughly compromised that the vernacular is the only thing that seems to account for anything.
Having eviscerated the liberal arts in America, capitalism has gone on to kill by the numbers. How many of us will forget the daily “body counts” on TV during the war in Viet Nam? Now it doesn’t even matter unless it’s one of ours and PR would prefer that we only do that for the record.
For the first time in my life I actually believe that we are wrong. And no amount a beating our chests will avail us of the inevitable. It is no longer an economic opportunity to join the army and become a killer because there are no jobs left in America. Where is the leadership that can rise to this occasion?
A major artery is about to break open and it will not be a condition to swoon over.
