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| VietnamWar Memorial, Statues of Vietnam War soldiers By Angelskiss31, Flickr |
A majority of young Americans have never
served in the Armed Forces. Their understanding of military service and war comes
from how the news media reports our wars. Television, movies, and the playing
of video war games further distort their view of war. Unlike previous wars,
restrictions on publishing certain images of war and inadequate media coverage
sanitize war in a way that creates ignorance of the horrors of war, and what
face combat veterans when they return home.
Most combat veterans cannot talk about
their experiences. Not even to their families or best friends. They
will only share their experiences with other veterans. They don’t want to
take a risk that people will not understand the adrenalin-driven rushes,
exultation, rage, and dreadful fear simultaneously felt during combat. They
will not understand how it feels to kill another human being.
But, it’s important for veterans to speak
out and share their experiences. Men like Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic encourage
veterans to join the anti-war movement. His articles, In
the Presence of My Enemy: A Reflection on War and Forgiveness and Reflections on the Vietnam War: The Things a
Warrior Knows are must-reads.
Kovic writes, "I know war very well.
I know it at night when I am sleeping and nightmares still come or in the
morning when I wake up and transfer into my wheelchair to start my day. I am
happy to be alive, and recently bought a piano and hope to learn to play it
someday. I love to play the high notes; they are gentle and soothing to me,
almost like the sound of raindrops on my window when I was a boy. Just to touch
the keys from time to time helps me to forget the war. The music of the piano
fills the air with healing. The past recedes. And sometimes even the nightmares
disappear for a while. The sound of a single note gives hope. Somehow we must
begin to find the courage to create a better world even if it is with one note
or one step."
When veterans speak out we should all pay
attention. For they are the evidence that we have failed at making the United
States and our world a better place to live if only we had the courage to take
that first step and take a different path other than war.
© Copyright 2015 Horatio Green
