Letters to the Editor
AJCalhoun
Published Letters: 964 Editor's Choice: 127
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Notice Is Served
[Read the article: I've had it!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cary has copped an insanity plea and offered it to the LW as well, so we can insanely take as precedent his buddha-like advice sandwiched in between the bloody horrible truth he offers up: there are a lot of us out here who once knew civility, felt safe in the assumption that one might move upon the face of the earth without being offended or violated in some way at least 10 times while en route to the drug store to pick up our pain meds, and that when people did behave badly in public the least we could expect was a supportive look from a fellow sufferer, if not some old bat (one of our mothers, no doubt) speaking up loudly and relentlessly until the offender dissolved in a pile of duckshit and crackerdust. But now that we are so thoroughly inured to the presence of others in our lives, now that we are so utterly isolated by cheap techno-toys and cars we will never pay off in our lifetimes, now that each of us believes himself King of the World, there is non-stop turmoil all around us "crazies." Well fuck that. There are a lot of us guys, that's right, GUYS, who have run out of endorphins, been cured of Buddhism and would simply like to be left the fuck alone...and we have nothing to lose. There is no more dangerous animal on the face of the earth than a man between the ages of 50 and 70 with nothing much left to lose. And, oddly, few things more powerful in the short-run. Warning is served. Civility is greeted with warmth. Being an asshole could just get you maimed. What are you gonna do? Take away our birthdays?
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They Were Only Following Orders
[Read the article: Revealing a 40-year-old horror]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Dear No Name Given: is that what you were trying to say with "they were only doing what they had to do?" Let us hope they were at the very least following orders and not merely obeying some dark instinct.
Needless to say I do not know your husband. I know nothing of his service in Viet Nam. I do know that you chose to use him and his service there to try and help justify a sort of statute of limitations on the murder of foreign civilians. This does both your husband and your country a gross disservice. If your husband served honorably in an ultimately dishonorable war, then he will be left alone. If he or any other member of an American military force committed unspeakable atrocities in the name of freedom, country or, yes, even God, then may that God have mercy on his soul, for his ass may be ours.
I have heard enough from apologists for every sort of disgusting, heinous, perverted crime based on the age of the case, as though somehow justice has a shelf-life, and a short one at that. Well Bobby Frank Cherry, one of the bombers of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham could tell you that's not how it works here in the USA. When convicted and sentenced 39 years later he commented "The whole bunch lied all the way through this. I don't know why I'm going to jail for nothing!" He had missed an important American citizenship lesson: when you disgrace your national heritage or your human citizenship you are required to pay, be it sooner or later.
We have all been seduced, left and right, conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat, into believing we are the good guys in any conflict, no matter who "started it," and the few who escaped this indoctrination believe we are always and without exception wrong and evil. That leaves us in a terrible position as a nation and as a people. Perhaps by owning up to our own foibles, failures and fiascos we can rise above those who, rightly or wrongly (and there is a little of both "out there") throw stones at us. Everybody knows now, so why not do the best we can and move on? Yes, everybody knows. It's out there. As Leonard Cohen so dryly tells us, "Everybody knows the dice are loaded. Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed. Everybody knows the war is over. Everybody knows the good guys lost. Everybody knows the fight was fixed; the poor stay poor; the rich get rich. That's how it goes. Everybody knows."
My sympathy to you in your desire to comfort and protect your husband, who may well deserve that devotion; but please, if he is innocent do not use him to shield the guilty; and if he is one of the guilty, for the love of God don't make yourself an accessory by shielding him from justice overdue, because the train is coming anyway.
God help us, every one.