My visit to “the Wall” in Washington D.C. is still vivid in my memory. Standing in front of the black marble, covered with over 5000 names, I watched people trace down the column to find their loved ones. The now dead, some 20 years, were sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers, best friends, husbands and wives current and to be, who died in a faraway place, Vietnam. Despite the span of time, I still see tears streaming down the faces of those searching. These only account for the pain of casualties on “our” side…what about those who died being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Certainly they are not memorialized as grandly, engraved in marble, in the capitol city of their country.
I recall the shock and disbelief when my brother’s best friend, Lee, was killed in Vietnam. He had such a bright future; a beautiful fiancée, healthy and handsome, top of his class, a really nice guy and a small town hero type. He had all the markings of a successful business man, husband, and contributor to a better world. We were knocked off our feet, stunned. I can only imagine the enduring grief his parents, and wife-to-be suffer yet to this day.
How can the anguish we are causing be any different from those who lost their loved ones in Iraq, and the insidious on-going war in Afghanistan? On both sides…..The recent count for Afghanistan civilian deaths is between 20,000-40,000 civilians. That’s hardly exact….could be many more. Then there are the families and the friends and on and on who have been impacted. And then there are the wounded that we probably can’t begin to document. The travesty of this and the fact that we let it go on and on is mind-boggling. When will we learn, war is not the answer?
Katherine the Great...
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