Watching Ken Burn's VIETNAM......dredged up so many disregarded, if not forgotten memories....So much subsequent horror had displaced many memories, returned to reconsideration by the viewing of this Series.....In the summer of 1967, having completed my stint in college....and the dreaded draft.....deferment.....my mother had 'arranged' a job for me, in a 'sensitive' job with the USAF, that would...year by year.... prolong my "deferred" status. I lived in an airstream trailer, in Warner Robins, Ga, next to a takeoff/landing strip for C-141 cargolifters that were, day and night, delivering new arms and young, naive, brainwashed human fodder to Vietnam's killing fields, forests, mountains and streams......in 1967, tens of thousands of callow 'liberal commie' American youth conscientious objectors...and I was one of these....finally, called to action, marched...hordes of them.....in D.C. I could no longer even 'work' for our Federal Government, quit my job and drove to Atlanta, where I was summarily sent an 'induction notice' to report to the 'Center' on Ponce de Leon Ave..... Rather than flee the country, as many of my friends had done, I showed up, took the required 'competency' exams (that no person able to stand and understand basic commands could possibly have 'failed')....then, during my 'consult' with some jerk in Uniform with stars, stacks of multi-colored bars, lapel decor and burr head, declared that I was a Conscientious War Objector, a Pacifist, a "Queer" and 'Non-Violent' devotee of MLK's Philosophy ......This action got me the "4-F" that I had hoped for, after hearing the uniformed War 'Hero" tell me "You should be ashamed of yourself!" as I was dismissed from the long line of 18-25 year-olds that were potential fodder for 'The War".......I decided, right then, that I would abandon any thoughts about this incident...and any thoughts about the idiotic War, altogether...and have a Life here in Atlanta.....After this incident, I ceased listening to radio and television news, received no newspaper subscriptions and read no magazines other than Film Comment, National Geographic, The Speckled Bird, and Time-Out......insulating myself from the madness of American Mass Delusion.......Now, I'm emotionally viewing Ken Burns' newest Documentary....hoping that Americans will draw a parallel with our current involvement with North Korea, which could be even more devastating......War is a manufactured expression of dehumanization, racism, bigotry and ignorant prejudicial hatred, promulgated by politicians and big business, as it has 'evolved' from monkey sub-species fighting over the worn trails to banana and nut trees or the exclusive rights to copulate with females in heat......'Ideology' is the new objective of our massive brainwashing......"A little learning is a dangerous thing....Drink deep, or drink not, of the Pierian Spring."
No comments:
Post a Comment