Veteran’s Day
A little late, but I just stumbled upon this article at Huffington Post, detailing the suppression of footage that followed the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. You can find a video and smaller article from the author here. The video is graphic. Then there’s this photo series at the Denver Post, following a new soldier from enlistment to return from combat.
I don’t think I thought about my uncle nearly enough today. He passed several months ago after a titanic struggle with cancer–outlasting by over a year the predictions of his doctor. I wouldn’t have any basis for my writing without him. I did thank one of my best friends, who served. One of the only ways I can justify not enlisting is that the people who came before did so I wouldn’t have to. Otherwise, I feel like a coward. That’s not up for discussion.
The loftiest thoughts I get about writing, about mine, are that maybe I’ll get it into someone’s head, down the line, that war doesn’t even have to turn you into a monster; it can make you a better man, and even as that better man it is not worth it. The only way we can justify a war now is to stop a war later, one our sons and daughters would have to fight. If you’re not sparing the innocence of another, you are not just.
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From me to your uncle: thank you.
You know, it’s weird… my boyfriend’s brother is in the process of becoming a Marine (Basic now, infantry training — BY CHOICE despite testing into pretty much any other job he could have wanted — in a couple months) and so I’m slowly beginning to learn what it’s like to be part of a military family. Or at least, to have a serviceman in the family. And it’s… weird. My own family doesn’t have any history of military service, so it’s completely foreign to me.
I do know I’ll be terrified if/when he gets deployed…