Memorial Day is the National Holiday where we in the US remember our fallen soldiers and their sacrifices. We also have picnics and barbecues and eat lots of cold watermelon and potato salad.
Today's holiday is causing me to think about the people who are currently serving in the US military. My brother is a Vietnam War veteran, and I know all about the sleepless nights my mother spent worrying about him while he was deployed overseas. I also know that when he came back to the US, he was greeted with hostility by the anti-war movement of the time. He has, however, enjoyed some benefits from his service - at least he has VA health coverage. That's more than 44 million other Americans have.
What has changed between then and now, between that war and this one? Between Vietnam and Iraq? Well, for one thing, Vietnam has become an extremely hot tourist destination - Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) has a huge hotel business, with more popping up all the time. If you're flying to Bangkok from Japan, you probably change planes in Ho Chi Minh City. You can even take a 4-star cruise of the Mekong river. Really. That one was a real eyeball-popper for my brother. Somehow, I doubt that an enhanced tourist trade will be part of our legacy in Iraq. Vietnam is a Buddhist country, and Theravadan Buddhists do teach meditation and mindfulness. These teachings really are, I believe, superior to the Middle East's centuries of religiously justified tribal grudges. Now if we could just clean up all the land mines.
What else is different? Well, the lack of on-the-scene press coverage is obvious. Our government has made sure of that, yesirree. The people who are getting blown up overseas today are probably too young to remember when Chet Huntley and David Brinkley actually showed battle footage on the evening news. They gave a body count. Some of us oldies remember that - you'd turn on your TV at dinner time,and there they were, young American men with their legs blown off, blinded eyes swathed in bloody bandages, being loaded onto evac helicopters. Dan Rather ducking fire as he sent his film (yeah, film!) to Walter Cronkite. You could see things burning, and it wasn't a studio-generated special effect. That's how an active anti-war movement got started here in America. All people had to do was read their papers or look at the news. That has all been changed.
This weekend's big story about a dead American soldier in Iraq was the tale of a puppy (the presso-genically named "Hero"), which the dead soldier had adopted before he was blown up with a roadside bomb. The puppy was flown over from Iraq and given to the family of the dead soldier. You'd have to be at least 40 years old (more like 50) to notice the difference in press reporting styles, but the difference is unmistakeable. Besides, back then there were only three networks you could watch - now, if the war news is unpleasant,you can always push a button and switch to American Idol. Now that's conflict!
I heard a young independent Middle East reporter speak about three months ago. These days, if you want to know what's going on in the war zone, you have to actually seek it out on the web. It's not delivered to your TV dinner tray along with a Swanson Swiss Steak foil-wrapped meal. Here is a web page which I sometimes go to (warning, this page does skew a bit to the left, and there are graphic images):
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com
This guy was a real interesting speaker. I thought by his name that he was going to be a Middle Easterner himself (OK, so I make prejudiced assumptions like most folks). But he's from Alaska, with a name like Dahr Jamail - go figure. That's why I love America. So today, I'm thinking about what I'm doing (if anything) to protect people from being killed in the first place. Both people who live overseas and our soldiers whose deaths are sweetened over with happy puppies. That's how I'm spending my Memorial Day. I'm thinking about it, and I'm writing about it. I figure I owe our soldiers more than a six-pack of beer and some watermelon.
Be honest, be thoughtful, be cool.
Byrd in LA
The big thing that has not changed is the publics willingness to follow leaders into useless struggles. Instead of opposition to the war the Democratic led congress has just increased funding with no strings attached to continue to fight in a country where the people we are fighting for are themselves killing the U.S. troops every chance they get. And it's all designed to keep the oil companies as profitable as possible. Cindy Sheehan just threw in the towel (not that I could find fault with her for that what a struggle it all must have been) There are not enough people willing to go on the line and speak truth to power, so the status quo remains and killing for greed goes on.
Posted by: clown hidden at May 29, 2007 09:08 AMJust a teeny tiny quibble-- I think Thicht Nat Hanh (the famous Zen Buddhist that Martin Luther King nominated for the Nobel Prize- I have mangled the spelling of is name) is Vietnamese. I believe he now lives in France. I think there are more than just Theravedan Buddhists in Vietnam as there is a large ethnic Chinese population. Also there were (before the end of the War) many Catholics in Vietnam.
Not so simple:)
The difference about today is that there are so many wars (world wide) and so much opportunity for coverage. Just wish us 'Mericans had as much ferver about Colombia, the Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia and Darfur as we do about Iraq and Afganistan.
It's the stuff that doesn't get wide coverage that makes me more concerned.
Enjoying your posts very much!
Posted by: Dr. Mimi at May 29, 2007 04:20 PMMaybe it wasn't clear, I'm not only talking about the U.S. there needs to be an uprising around the world against the greed that leads to war. It seems in every conflict there is a young soldier fighting a greedy old man's war. It's done by force a lot of the time. But even more of the time it seems it's done for nationalism or ideology. In all cases it never seems to pan out. The main resaon it happens is stupidity, if people could see what is really going on they wouldn't support or participate. It seems that day is a long way off. For now we are still living, as someone said, on the planety of the apes. If we try really hard maybe we can become human beings.
Posted by: clown hidden at May 29, 2007 04:49 PMHi, Mimi - and thanks for chiming in. I am a huge fan of Thich Naht Hanh and his Order of Interbeing. And of course, you are right that Therevadans are not the only Buddhists in Vietnam. But whether Therevadan or Mahayana, my point is that Buddhists are less likely to hold longterm tribal grudges than the Iraqi Muslims of whatever brand. Tribal monotheism has been a huge source of war for centuries.
Thanks also for reminding me that it's not just about what wars our "tribe" is involved in (i.e., Iraq). I had focussed on that conflict because Memorial Day is about US War dead, and that is the theater where our young people are killing and being killed. You're right, though, that we as a nation need to expand our vision to include those many places on the globe where people are suffering with war - not just where our soldiers are deployed.
I was in Sudan many years ago during a break in the civil war, and the people were wonderful - beautiful and kind. I have been worried about them for years and frequently contribute my meager $$ to relief efforts.
Thanks again for writing in. Byrd
Vietnamese Buddhism appears to be a mix of Theravada, Pure Land, & Zen. I am not sure, but I think Mahayana may have arrived there from China first, followed by Theravada from the west.
I have an old friend whose wife is a Thai Buddhist
and she had a Kuan Yin statue on her altar. Too bad, in my view, that Nichiren was not exposed to the Pali Canon.
Byrd:
Having died in the jungles of nam and been reborn in a cambodian temple tended by monks all this little i can say is:
thank you
for we were there when we were not there and so many bodies perished around me whose names are on no wall of memorium as they died in "accidents" stateside or on board ships...many of us ended up in mental wards...
perhaps, wandering the jungles of cambodia for three days, with a piece of shrapnel in my skull, seeing visions of how foolish it was that there was only one I and it was not the ruler of any blind kingdom, the tzeends of tzu were planted.
tzu offers gratitude for your words and memories, your thoughts and honors.
Tzuly, Tzu deux
Posted by: C.W. Tzu at May 31, 2007 08:29 AMI think there are some Buddhists who hold some major grudges... Sri Lanka (think the many year civil war between the Hindu and Buddhist populations) has had some rather aggressive Buddhists.
Also there has been quite the insurgency and conflict in Southern Thailand between the Muslim and Buddhist populations.
I am also thinking of those warrior Buddhist monks in China and other locales in history.
So I take that "not living with a grudge" and being more passive because of Buddhism with a huge grain of salt.
I think the goal in many Buddhist practices is to "kill the will to kill" but even Shingo Kingo and many of Nichiren Daishonin's early followers were samurai. They still guarded, killed and did a host of not so peaceful things.
Byrd,
It's remarkable how reporting has changed. Although I was born in 1970 and can remember the fall of Saigon,most of the Vietnam war I found out during my high school period.In the Netherlands we had our Memorial Day on May 4th. That's when we remember our fallen soldiers form WWII onwards. Last year I went to Prague, Czech Republic, and to my surprise I found out how little US citizens know about what happened in Europe during WWII. Here we are told at school at youth is active in remembering ceremonies. WWII is still much alive here. When being in Czech Republic I also visited the former concentration camp Theresienstadt a.k.a. Terezin. In my group of people (english languages), there was an older lady with her granddaughter. They where from Alabama. This girl asked her grandmother why the Germans treaded the Jews so badly. She couldn't understand. I turned to her and asked if she was from the southern part of USA. She was also a bit colored.Then I explained to her by example of Rosa Parks and what happened to her. To this story the girl could relate. I also explained that the Nazi regime did in fact the very same. After reaching Prague again, the grandmother stepped up to me and asked me if I was a history teacher. I replied, no madam, Here in Europe and especially in Netherlands we're thought never to forget what happened during WWII and to pass it on to future generations. This is also what Ikeda Sensei tells us. Remember the past so we can learn from it in the future.And make sure we don't repeat the mistakes that where made then.
It's a shame to see that the US government is trying to cover up what is happening in Iraq. Like they don't want the people to know that what they do in Iraq is illegal and not justifiable. We all know that Iraq was posing not treat to the world any more.
I think that the US government is making the same mistake as during the Vietnam war. In the end Iraq will probably be the next "Vietnam" to the USA. The Netherlands still have some troops there and in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan the Dutch military are in the worst province, Urusgan. Still our guys go out with flat hats instead of helmets being friendly to the native population. Results are that people are cooperative and help. Instead of being hostile. I think this is in the spirit of the Daishonin and Shingo Kingo.
André from the Netherlands