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Post by Jeanne on May 15, 2012 20:16:17 GMT -8
Thanks, Sharon and Roberta. The reviews of the book at amazon were helpful. one mentioned that it's hard to prove a negative. I can be prepared if anyone uses it in conversation to ask them if they know of firsthand experience of the vilifying.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on May 16, 2012 23:05:13 GMT -8
I'm very grateful for these posts because I had written an e-mail to Jeanne earlier this week saying I believed that Vietnam veterans had been spat upon 40 years ago. Then I ran a Google search and learned about the book Sharon and Roberta cited. It's hard to prove a negative, as Jeanne writes, but it seems that the research I saw-- most of it done in the past decade -- has debunked this urban legend. I also read a long, angry blog by a Vietnam vet and career military officer attacking those who still promulgate it online.
I accepted that canard because almost everybody else did, especially a former Marine who served two tours during the worst years of the Vietnam War. I used to hang out with him in the late 1970's and early '80's, and while he was never spat upon or verbally abused, he didn't feel he ever got the respect or thanks due to him for his service. That's the soil upon which this tree of myth was planted, with our collective national guilt for the horrific futility of that long war being the rain that falls reliably.
Does it even matter whether it's true? Those who still invoke the myth are only using it as a premise for another point more easily refuted. A better question might be: What are we doing for the less than one percent of our citizens who've served in Iraq and Afghanistan while the rest of us were called upon to make no sacrifices whatsoever? They have much higher suicide rates, homelessness and unemployment than the average population, all much harder to live with than airborne saliva.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on May 18, 2012 23:00:54 GMT -8
The turnout for this Friday's Montrose Peace Vigil was the lowest in years -- we had two more people on the corner in February 2011 despite heavy rain and strong winds for the full 90 minutes. Most of our regulars were absent, and we had no spontaneous participants. I do not count those who stopped to talk and express their support but did not demonstrate in some way: - May 4 - 15
- May 11 - 16
- May 18 - 5
With Jim at his daughter's graduation and Mike still in Illinois, we did not bring our flagpole. Yet I posted the seven military death announcements by the Pentagon from the past week on the shopping park association's barren flagpole and decided to leave the three pages taped there this time. Here's the PDF: Attachments:
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Post by Sharon W on May 19, 2012 9:20:27 GMT -8
Oh my - we had 7 regulars at Broadway & Brand and 3 teen boys showed up and took some signs and were chanting "Bring them Home, Bring them Home" while the 2 girls who were with them took photos. The youngsters only stayed a few minutes but they sure got lots of supporting honks and waves from the drivers passing by.
It's just the ebb and flow of humanity, I guess!
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Roberta
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Post by Roberta on May 20, 2012 11:15:25 GMT -8
On Friday evening Anni, Chris and I were having one of those interesting, a bit disjointed, multi-topic conversations that seem the norm when you are all holding signs and simultaneously interacting with drivers and walkers. This one percent item came up, I forget the exact context, and I became distracted on the way to adding this. As I remember reading it, it is one percent of all of U.S. families who have anyone in the military, so way fewer than one percent of individuals actually serve. I'll research this ... in between distractions.
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anni
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Post by anni on May 24, 2012 18:51:58 GMT -8
Oh my - we had 7 regulars at Broadway & Brand and 3 teen boys showed up and took some signs and were chanting "Bring them Home, Bring them Home" while the 2 girls who were with them took photos. The youngsters only stayed a few minutes but they sure got lots of supporting honks and waves from the drivers passing by. It's just the ebb and flow of humanity, I guess! Wow, Sharon, this is such heart-warming news. Thanks for posting such good cheer! I especially love when strangers spontaneously join a Peace Vigil! Any place & any time ;D ;D ;D
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Brian
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Post by Brian on May 25, 2012 23:02:47 GMT -8
The number of participants on the corner doubled this Friday from last week, thanks to a father and his nine year old daughter who helped Jim hoist the Montrose Peace Vigil's portable, telescoping half-staff flagpole that we've raised almost every week since last September to replace the flag that the shopping park association removes to protest our protest. I've always held one standard in counting our attendance -- someone has to do something -- which leaves out all the supportive people who stop to talk, sometimes hanging out for an hour or more, without holding a sign, waving at the honking cars or demonstrating in some way. It's a first, but I have to include the dad and his kid because they contributed to the vigil: - May 4 - 15
- May 11 - 16
- May 18 - 5
- May 25 - 10
This month's average rounds to 12 demonstrators per week. The April average was exactly 10, with 12 in March, 11 in February and 9 in January. The May 2011 average attendance was also 12. As posted on the flagpole, here are this week's Department of Defense announcements of military deaths: Attachments:
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Post by Jeanne on May 28, 2012 8:28:36 GMT -8
Does it even matter whether it's true? Those who still invoke the myth are only using it as a premise for another point more easily refuted. A better question might be: What are we doing for the less than one percent of our citizens who've served in Iraq and Afghanistan while the rest of us were called upon to make no sacrifices whatsoever? They have much higher suicide rates, homelessness and unemployment than the average population, all much harder to live with than airborne saliva. I thought that it would be good to bring up Brian's question again today. Roberta and I were at the service at the corner this morning and the mayor of Glendale announced that there will be a forty unit, affordable living complex in Glendale for veterans. It will include services for veterans. And a very sweet outcome from my correspondence with Dale Dawson...He did no preaching or reading from the Bible at all. No mistakes were made.
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Post by Sharon W on May 28, 2012 12:40:04 GMT -8
"Sir, No Sir" is available free today and tomorrow. From FB: In honor of the soldiers and veterans who took part in the profound medal tossing demonstrations at the NATO Summit in Chicago--from May 19, Armed Forces/Armed Farces Day, through the Memorial Day weekend, you can watch FOR FREE three powerful films about GI a......nd veterans' resistance to criminal wars:WATCH THE FILMS, ORGANIZE HOUSE PARTIES, AND HELP SPREAD THE WORD OF THIS ONE-TIME OPPORTUNITY TO SEE THIS GI/VETERANS RESISTANCE TRILOGY FOR FREE! The films will be available on Youtube at www.youtube.com/user/DisplacedFilms/featured starting at 9 am on Saturday, May 19, and ending Tuesday, May 29, at 9 am. *Sir! No Sir! - The landmark 2006 film by David Zeiger that revealed the suppressed story of the GI Movement to end the Vietnam War, a movement that shook the military and government to its core and played a major role in ending the war. Sir! No Sir! has been distributed for free to thousands of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, helping to inspire the birth of Iraq Veterans Against the War. *Unfinished Symphony - The 2001 Sundance film by Bestor Cram and Mike Majoros that told the story of one of the largest demonstrations of veterans during the Vietnam War, the 1971 march from Concord to Boston by Vietnam Veterans Against the War that ended in 400 arrests--the most in Massachusetts history. Set to Henryk Gorecki's unfinished Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, this beautiful, lyrical film brings you deep into the soul of veterans' resistance. *This is Where We Take Our Stand - Last year's film by David Zeiger, Bestor Cram, and Mike Majoros, that told the story of the hundreds of soldiers and veterans who risked everything to reveal the true nature of the Iraq and Afghanistan occupations by testifying at 2008's Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan hearings.
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Post by dnomde on Jun 1, 2012 6:11:07 GMT -8
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