Veteran’s Day 2011 – I Will Never Forget

Last night Ducky tried to watch Vietnam in HD on History as we sat at the dinner table eating our savory hot chicken and dumplings, a voice from the TV recounted their experiences and terror of the 1968 Tet Offense – And tears fought to run from my eyes and down my face. This distressed Ducky to the point of him going back to the boring Georgia Tech game, a game in which neither of us were vested. I didn’t want him to change the channel, but I didn’t have the ability to say the words that were choked in my throat by tears of sorrow, which I think only moved him more to switch channels.

I don’t believe in war, yes, I recognize there are instances where even I could agree war was a necessary evil, the worse of two evils, where two wrongs might, might end up as ending in a right. Where we have been is a lesson for the future – one my country refuses to hear. I sat there crying for the lives lost, for veterans spit on, for youth, soldiers, and sacrifices forgotten. Not only in Vietnam, but in all wars before and since. Old men send our youth off to die in the name of ego, oil, commerce. They send our youth off to fight someone else’s civil war – Korea, Vietnam, and Bosnia.

Today is Veteran’s Day 2011, tears run down my face with each song I play in the memory of those who felt the call of my country to arms; tears and pain for those who died, for those who suffer their loss, and for those who came back. I don’t believe in war, but I believe in our youth, I believe in the innocence lost, I believe in what will never be for those who never come back, and I mourn what will never be for those who do. I believe in each of those souls, I believe in their honor, and I will mourn their memory - both those I knew, and those I never had the honor to meet. I grieve at the feet of their offering and stand against war for the rest of my life.

Please say thank you to a Veteran today, you don’t have to honor the war, where they were sent, but honor their courage, their commitment to this country, and the loss of their innocence and far, far too often the loss of their lives.



My Veteran’s Day playlist

John Flynn – Dover
Dixie Chicks – Travelin’ Soldier
John Michael Montgomery – Letters From Home
Billy Ray Cyrus – Some Gave All
Tim McGraw – If You’re Reading This
Toby Keith – American Soldier
Amie Lynn - The Star Spangle Banner (although I believe America The Beautiful should be our national anthem – go Ray Charles)
Will.i.am & Faith Hill – America’s Song

Please honor a Veteran, today, and everyday. Then go out and work to end war so we don’t have to have more men and women become veterans.

Sith,
Cele