When I first heard him say this, I was thirteen. It was a bit traumatic.
Life often shows us that the most selfish desires can often be the most altruistic wishes, as well. Talk about duality!
My father was in the Vietnam generation. He was drafted but had some 'medical' problems that kept him from going. My mother and father tell me stories of men who went to Nam and didn't come back, or came back changed. Both of my parents had fathers who served in some fashion in World War II. But Vietnam? It was a bit different, and met with different emotions. Needless to say, my parents are primary evidence of the 'Nam violence. Distraught, hopeless, angry--no wonder my dad didn't want kids.
I was born a bit later in life for my parents, making my mother thirty-four when she had her first (and only) child. My father was thirty. They delayed me long enough to spare me of certain truths. I missed the Generation of Desert Storm.
And now, I am too old to partake in the War on Terror.
My boyfriend, however, is ten years older than me. During 1990, he was all set to sign up for Desert Storm. His father had served in Vietnam and (thank God) came back to create Michael. Michael told me of how he and his friends would go to bars just to watch the news--to find out if Desert Storm was going to become World War III. That's what he was being told by the machines of war. Desert Storm: the next holy and righteous war, ever.
Thank heavens it DID not come to that.
We are a nation of polarities. We live in such splendor and wealth. We choose where to eat, where to shop, what to buy, how to live. We have fantastic credit debt and continue to consume. We all have cars--everyone of us has a car! We watch violent television and movies, and eat fattening foods. We consume, consume, consume, and the Powers that Be feed on this, as well. They create complacent cattle and threaten the cattle with less feed if the cattle do not support the inane desires of Government.
Our generations of young men move from the safety and softness of a culture overridden with wealth to the horror of war. Unjust war. Unrighteous and unfulfilling war. These young men are taught to 'KILL! KILL! KILL!' and push buttons to blow up bombs in cities miles away, where flesh ripped to shreds won't be witnessed by Americans. Our generations of people since WWII have moved from hope to hostility, thanks to the nature of a violence-dominated culture. There IS no righteous war, as before. There is only mind-numbing, button pushing, life destroying, envious politics. America feeds its young men a recipe for violence with video games, complacency, fattening foods. And then, off they go, to fight in the Middle East with no concept of true horror, true poverty, or true humanism.
And then, they come back.
And we expect them to settle back in to a world of fattening facts and push-button technology without a hitch. We show them the reality of life, the do-or-die truths, the 'brotherhoods' of the armed forces, but we take away their rifles and give them buttons and remote controls with which to fight. We train men to kill, and give them nothing to sate their appetites.
You tell me why sociopaths roam the street.
You tell me why so many young men are criminals.
You tell me why children have such short attention spans.
You tell me why my father didn't want to have a child.
"Every war is different, every war is the same." -Jarhead.
