a fifty-something under-tall half-deaf school librarian in the jersey suburbs with two grown kids and time on her hands

Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.

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08.23.2004

12:26 pm

I'll admit it: back in the day, I was one of those anti-war, peace-nik types. Early on, this led to more than a few political debates with Jack, whose take on the whole thing was that, right or wrong, if your country called upon you to serve, you served, case closed. That's what he had done in WWII, and that's what he believed. But after a few years, he was willing to admit that the whole Viet Nam war thing was, in fact, wrong. He didn't condone draft-dodging, as such, but he came to be against the war as well. Even so, I was never ever EVER against the soldiers who were fighting there. Just as I knew that my father had done his duty, as he saw it, I knew these soldiers were doing that, too. How could I not support them as individuals, as human beings? I contributed to packages for soldiers, I wore a POW bracelet. If that's support, I supported; I don't know what else I could have done. I was not a man, I had no brothers, I had no sweetheart in danger of being sent there. I was not directly involved in that way. I was involved in that I was an American with an opinion and I lived at that time. I always believed that the soldiers there deserved to be respected, and that anyone with an opinion had a right to it.

The Hubs said yesterday, Did I ever imagine that Viet Nam would become a campain issue again, now after so many years? Well, no; who could have? Here's the conundrum:

The liberals who protested the war back then are the same Democrats (probably) who are proud of John Kerry's war service and mad as hell that these liars are trying to make it out to be less than it was. These conservatives who are maligning him would have been the conservatives in 1970 who were arguing that liberals mistreated and disrespected soldiers, who deserved our honor and respect.

It appears that this Swiftboat Liars group is out to make Kerry look bad, no more no less. If they had to, I think they would have named themselves Protect Our Children! and would have tried to make him look like a pedophile, if that's what they thought would work. It's a damn dirty trick, just like the one pulled on Edmund Muskie in 1972, or the one pulled on John McCain in 2000. This one is just really widespread and gets national airtime.

Here's what they're trying to avoid having people notice: that Kerry served in Viet Nam and Bush didn't. What if Kery served (and no one says he didn't) on a swift boat (no argument there) and that he wasn't in constant, continuous danger, but only sometimes? Gee. Bush didn't even serve out his full time in the National Guard! Whose truth do we have to accept here? How about just the truth of what happened? Nobody is questioning, I think, that Kerry pulled a guy back into the boat under dangerous conditions. The truth is that there are people with a political agenda who will lie to see it succeed.

Again, people who have served in war deserve to be treated with respect. Let's give that a shot. And let's put Viet Nam behind us, eh? (Except for the part about not wanting to be doomed to repeat it, let's remember that. Oh, too late.) Or will Iraq be a campain issue in 2034?

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I'm watching Saved By The Bell
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