Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Subject: "Why were we in Vietnam" July11, 2008


http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns ... 694049.ece

Thanks to Harold Meyerson for illustrating the total irony of Donald Ducks made in Vietnam. Tying this to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial reminded me of a book I have by Jan Scruggs, the founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. His book, "Why Vietnam Still Matters," contains the spectrum of wisdom painfully gleaned from a number of veterans and volunteer guides at the Wall.

I served in Vietnam; being a young man in that era meant volunteering, or being drafted. I heeded the call. But I was deeply affected by the experience. I became alienated and angry, and anti-war. Thanks to the Vet Center program for their profound help, as I was fortunate to connect with them in the 1980's.

What relevance does the circuitous path of post-war Vietnam have for today? Was the war really necessary in the first place? That is the number one question. A more prescient and meaningful usage of the U.S. military is in order.


j loco

st pete, florita
© Copyright 2008 St. Pete Times.

Well thought out letter, jimbo. It should cause the reader to think... but that just might be hoping for too much.

Then again, the effect of bringing into the global labor pool hundreds of millions of low-wage workers — people whose wages are held in check by both capital mobility and communist repression ... what a panorama! (we would say here..)

thanks for sharing the article, jimbo

you never know
someday
critical mass

lady patient i have today 84
he son KIA vietnam \
she says th same thing
we can only keep trying to tell the truth