Jeffrey Blankfort wrote:
> brass plaques that try to
> bring honor where there was none are surely a guarantee of further tragedies.
-------------------------
>
>
> As Vietnam Veterans Against The War say now "honor the warrior not the war".
> Most people are not aware of the Uniform Code of Military Justice which governs
> the actions of military personnel. Also most people forget that most
> individuals are "forced" into the military by national laws or even by family
> pressure. Elizabeth Koobler Ross, the internationally acknowledged expert on
> death and dying tells us that in cases of violent and unnatural death (and that
> is all war deaths in my opinion) unless the corpse is touched there is no
> closure. i have seen this closure take place when names are put up on
> monuments. Is is fair to doom family and friends to un healing and lack of
> closure for life because of adventuristic and oppertunistic behavior by their
> govenments?
Lack of compassion accomplishes very little in life except a continuation of
xenophobia and anger. How strange that there is no national or international
movement of any size to abolish armies. Yet years are spent raising and training
individuals for war. And we have no time to put a human face upon the war dead so
that we can be reminded all the time of their sacrifice to our inability to "get
along" in a non violent way.
i for one have found great satisfaction in this work and do believe that if we
were to publicly acknowledge each and every war dead individual every day we would
end war. During the Vietnam War the presence of casualty lists on television
every day created a climate against the war. Also the Life Magazine which printed
pictures of a weeks worth of American Vietnam War Dead moved the public toward a
ending the war.
Please feel free to visit our Interactive Vietnam Veterans War Memorial on the
City of Berkeley California home page and read the comments left on each dead
soldiers page and tell me that you are not deeply moved. Such intense feelings
lead to thoughts which can change actions and bring us closer to a world of peace
and harmony.
For me anyway, there is a feeling of honoring the service and sacrifice of
comrades here. i know that feeling is not shared by everyone. But i do not want
their deaths to be for nothing. cheers, country joe mcdonald
>
>
-- "Ira Furor Brevis Est " - Anger is a brief madness
country joe Home Pg <http://www.countryjoe.com>
country joe's tribute to Florence Nightingale
<http://www.countryjoe.com/nightingale>
Berkeley Vietnam Veterans Memorial <http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/Links/Comm/vvm>
Rag Baby Online Magazine <http://www.ragbaby.com/magazine>
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