[Oe List ...] Have you been watching the Vietnam series on PBS?

Sat Sep 30 21:59:03 PDT 2017

Words and phrases I remember from the last episode, The Weight of Memory--

-Certain people were dying for uncertain reasons.

-How did we let this gang take charge?

-This was a rich man's war

-Defeat was inevitable

-The convoy of tears

-You have to lose a nation and a dream to feel humiliation.

-Americans had forgotten these were human beings.

-Let us hope we have learned from this experience.

-A messy ending to a messy war.

-In some future date if an American president wants to start a war, he should stand in Arlington Cemetery.

-After the takeover by the North Vietnamese, the South Vietnamese could not really mourn their dead.

-The Greeks called it "Divine Madness," during the Civil War it was called "Soldiers' Heart," in WWI it was called "shell shock," in WWII it was "combat fatigue," and in Viet Nam it became known as "Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome or PTSD."

-Our country had an eagerness to forget the war.

-Soldiers came home alone essentially.

-The VN Memorial was pushed by a veteran named Jan Scruggs. Designer Maya Lin said the memorial would have the name of everyone killed. "Those who died should be remembered." One veteran, John Musgrave, said he's grateful it's there--"It will save lives."

-It was the farmers who saved [Viet Nam].

-The Viet Nam war is over. We must look to the future. Now we must find meaning.

-Americans now doubt themselves in the second most divisive war in our history. The Viet Nam War was a tragedy but meaning can be found in the stories of those who lived through it.

This episode--and all of them--brought a real gift in reconnecting with our memories (knowing these stories gave us something very new, filling in the timeline we had lived through without awareness of the war). And after watching this series, I am different because of both a new awareness of the tragedy of this war along with a profound appreciation for the stories of the individuals on all sides who lived through it.

Burns and Novick know how to tell stories so that we can get inside of them and raise questions. Here's to that.

--Diann McCabe

________________________________
From: OE <oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of Sherwood Shankland via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2017 4:00:26 PM
To: oe at lists.wedgeblade.net
Cc: Sherwood Shankland
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Have you been watching the Vietnam series on PBS?

Thanks, Herman
My resistance to the draft took the form of a religious deferment as prior of the Cleveland religious house...
I have been to the Wall 3 times. The first time I was jolted by the vast expanse of names. I wept for an hour. Eunice and Robert tried to understand my response and I too tried . On my second visit I looked up my high school classmate, Jim Rizzo, who had died in action and touched his name. Tears again and a start toward acknowledging the deep tragedy of that misguided war. Looking at my own reflection in the Wall I imagined Jim and felt the tragic loss of my friend. The third visit was a hurried visit on a sunny day which brought a bit of perspective to the journey we all share thru that amazing, sacred space. Go soon , Herman, there is healing in that place...Mystery beyond what I could have imagined, and healing I never knew I needed until it swept through me. Grace happens. Life is Good.
In Peace, Sherwood
(I guess that covers my Earthrise witness for this year :-)

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-----Original Message-----

From: oe at lists.wedgeblade.net
To: oe at lists.wedgeblade.net
Cc: rhowie3 at verizon.net
Sent: 2017-09-30 14:09:24 GMT
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Have you been watching the Vietnam series on PBS?

Dick and I watched all the episodes.  Let us hope and pray that history does not repeat itself!

Richard Howie
rhowie3 at verizon.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Margaret Aiseayew via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
To: 'Order Ecumenical Community' <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
Cc: Margaret Aiseayew <aiseayew at netins.net>
Sent: Fri, Sep 29, 2017 5:16 pm
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Have you been watching the Vietnam series on PBS?

All sides were presented.  I concluded that all sides were wrong.  Margaret

From: OE [mailto:oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net?>] On Behalf Of Herman Greene via OE
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2017 9:24 PM
To: Order Ecumenical Community
Cc: Herman Greene
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Have you been watching the Vietnam series on PBS?

Tonight was the final session. All that the US fought for was lost. But what we fought for was an abstraction at the leadership level and at the level of noncombatant citizens, right and left, as well. On the one hand we fought to defeat Communism and keep our promises to our allies, on the other we fought for a mistake. The lives of the people involved in the war on all sides, perpetrators and victims, were forgotten.

Never has the story of this war or perhaps any war been told like it was in this series. All sides were presented. Every side was right and every side was wrong and so much, so much, so much carnage, suffering and tragedy. The armaments, the bombing, the artillery, oh my. Bullets flying by the millions.

I feel anger for our the perfidy of our national leaders and for the war crimes committed on all sides. And I, like the protester at the end of the series, feel sorry at my own simplification of the issues, for my righteous, blind resistance.

Three of my high school classmates died in the war. Now I want to go to the wall and touch their names.

Herman

On Thu, Sep 28, 2017 at 12:25 PM, McGuire, Jann & Fred via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net<mailto:oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>> wrote:
I'm profoundly grateful for this amazing 21st Century Art piece. Last night reminded me of a couple of Vietnam veterans: my cousin  J.Mac Cates, a career army officer, who died young of leukemia, probably caused by agent orange exposure, as well as Israel Reyna, a teaching colleague.

I appreciate this ongoing art form conversation. It has mostly been on the Reflective level. Can't wait for Interpretive and Decisional. Here's an Objective observation, though not an exact quote. An interviewee last night said that the student protests and veteran counter protests caused a divide in the country that has never healed.

I was struck by young John Kerry's speech. I felt emotional when the veterans threw their medals at Nixon's White House barriers.

Thank you all,

Jann

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--
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Herman F. Greene
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