Remembering Vietnam

Yesterday, in addition to being Memorial Day, marked the anniversary of the beginning of the Vietnam War. 

A war that cost the United States over 58,000 lives.

A war that defined me, & many of my generation.

A war that sent home its vets without the welcome & thanks & support they deserved.

When I lived in Washington, D.C., I went to the Vietnam Memorial many, many times.  With my son, with family & friends & visitors & sometimes alone.  

I have never completed walking its length.

Because at some point each time I walked along the memorial, I could no longer bear reading the loss represented by those names, those lives, those families.

Or the loss represented by those who survived & came home wounded, both physically & spiritually.

Yesterday, President Obama chose to speak to the issue of Vietnam & its veterans.  I don’t really care if this was a political rather than a personal move.

It was the right thing to do.

Because he welcomed the vets home & said thank you.  Damned time.

For me, I doubt I will ever be able to walk the length of that wall.  Because I will always wish & wonder that it is not so much shorter.

As I wish for Afghanistan & Iraq.