I was dealing with bodies coming home, some in
bags, some in stretchers, some to be warehoused
in mental phacilities while the way too cool were
gathering in the parks to play at the peace time wonder of it all.
It has been hard for me to remember that my own time
up on Tripler Army Psych Ward was PRE TET. So it is
fun as I deal with the 30th Anniversary of that time
to look forward to the 30th Anniversary of Tet, and
wonder what it will be that americans will really be
able to think about, and to manage. At a gathering of
friends just off the Haight-Ashbury World, I pointed out
that in some way I must complement McVeigh for the Oklahoma
bombing, since it appears that it helped some americans deal
with the reality of what a Low Intensity Warfare Conflict would
look like CONUS, In ways that the Old Fashion Madison Research
bombing never really got through to everyone. And yes, Mojo retorted
about 'tell it to ...' and there is no nice way to say, Been there,
done that, and that there is no nice way to explain away dead and
wounded for national policies, both foreign or domestic...
So yes, linking the two is a nice way of having both the
yin and yang hang out together, and ask each other what
the world would really be like, were it any other way.
The really important question is who will really be able
to resolve which levels of anger and which levels of Guilt.
Will folks Really be able to deal with the cultural diversity
that exists between those of us who were Born In the Fortress,
and live far too painfully aware of how unsafe the world really IS,
and those who would be the Media Darlings, for which there are now
even commemorative porceline figurines of HippyChicks. Internally
the 'youth movement' would see it's star rise at Woodstock, and
crack open at Altamont. And it was with no small amount of amusement
watching the movie, as they take the Stones into the editing room to
show what appeared to be a pistol... So were the BigBadBikers really
wrong for stomping a possible hit? Was it better to have that way too
UnCool a Scene, or have Mick's brains splattered across the stage in
some Prelude to the Dakota Shooting of John Lennon? At least that hit
was done off stage, away from the glaring lights so everyone would not
get blood splattered live on the Nightly TV.
This might not be the right place to plonk in the absurdist juxtaposition
of watching the mother of my children opt out of the Fleet, so that she
could be with her children, and demi moore's Hot New G.I.Jane, and how
far as a nation we have not gone since women were working as the foot
soldiers of the flower power movement, and still not allowed to drive
the Big Magical Bus. Because that way leads to more Guilt and Anxiety
as the Women's Movement has to learn to deal with how they dealt with
female vets from the Vietnam Era, some who served in uniform, some who
were merely the stewardesses shipping the boys in and dragging the old
men home to a country that did not understand the price of freedom, both
foreign or domestic. Perhaps it would not bother me as much were it not
the unpleasantry of listening to some Gaggle of Noted Women trying to
avoid the unresolved questions of women in the Military and whether or
not Equity really WOULD demand that women get drafted, or that fathers
be excused from military service... since that way would lead to more
unpleasant thoughts than merely comparing and constrasting demi as a
G.I. v. being a stripper.
So I do hope folks will forgive me if I just can not get all motor
driven by the macho posturing of which vets were more vet from the
great days of rage, and which simpler visions of the world were better.
I just lay back, and bask in the war story of a brother who went back
to visit the village he had helped protect, and who would find that
blissed out moment sitting on the sidewalk of some Saigon/HoChiMihnCity
street, and catch himself, and the glaring gentlemen across the way
close out the war, as they both caught each other engaged in the
vile evilness of MaleChauvanistSexist Leering at attractive young
ladies riding by on motopeds. Maybe I'm just getting too old to care
any more, and to lazy to rally to the Great Battle Standards of
Ideology.... or maybe it really is time to just have a happy memorial
to a generation that now has memorials older than the "don't trust
anyone under 30" rule should allow them to have....
ciao
drieux
--------------------------------------------------------
E-mail: drieux@wetware.com
WebPage: http://www.wetware.com/drieux
Date: 08/24/97
Time: 14:46:22
--------------------------------------------------------