The Moving Wall

[Andy]

On occasion I?ve read posts that indicate James? area of the country is considered a bit weird. I will not dispute there are some people with odd ideas that live on the left coast. However I?d like to present a little geographical balance to these discussions.
Recently, The Moving Wall came to our little city. It was a memorable site but we didn?t stay long. After about 15 minutes I needed to walk away and sit in the shade. It seemed like a wake for way too many people, way too many friends. But that?s not what I wanted to talk about.
A resident of our town, a college professor of History and Chairman of the town?s school board wrote an article for our local newspaper. Below are excerpts from that article. They are not taken out of context, just a taste of what professor Engle had to say.
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Wall Event Striking and Troubling:
There were lots of good intentions, hard work and community spirit invested in bringing The Moving Wall to Easthampton. But - at least form my perspective - a strangeness, a tension, an edge surrounded that event. I am thinking of the careful and delicate phrasing of the opening speeches; the state trooper in full uniform who brought the spirit of vaudeville to the national anthem; the epic poem filled with elaborate cosmic imagery. Even the military drills seemed oddly muted - one might even say half-hearted.

The unhappy truth is that there is no way to separate the deaths of all these young people from the nature of the war that took their lives, along with those of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. But that is precisely what was being attempted - to honor and memorialize the dead without talking about or dealing with how and why they died. The result is an unsuccessful attempt at historical amnesia. The cold, hard fact is that the Vietnam War was a crime against humanity.
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The good professor goes on and on but you get the idea. He goes on and on about how our leaders and perhaps some of us were never put on trial for ?crimes against humanity?. Reading that article was a lot like being at the wake of a friend and someone saying the dead person deserved what they got.
If the Wall has been in your community or if it will visit in the future, hope you don?t have a professor Engle who has a direct line to your local newspaper. If that SOB dies before me, I plan on going to the funeral. After the eulogy I?m going to demand to do a rebuttal.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[1CAVCCO15MED]

This is a perfect example of someone thinks something so strongly that he twists his own reality to fit it. It's akin to paranoia in that he saw sinister subplots to simple reality. It shows how radicalism of any sort cannot exist unless it twists the truth to fit their preconcieved ideas.

[xgrunt]

I'll gladly buy you a bottle of your favorite bevarage so when the **** ******** **** SOB dies you can piss on his grave for me. Hell, Andy ,let me know when and I'll ride up and help water the fool's resting spot with ya. :cl:

[SEATJERKER]

...and allowed this "professor" to be the "speaker"...
...without any pretense of what he was going to speak about beforehand???
...Andy, don't make it any harder on yourself as babble is babble, ..

...Those of you that served in that far distant land deserve far better then words can discribe,...
... I'm glad you went for YOUR sake,...
... no one elses, just YOU, and I think that's the way the "Virtual Wall" was intended...

...Now sit back, and remember that your here to tell of the heroics of these men, and that that their memories will never falter...
...You, and all the rest of the Vietnam Veterans will bond even tighter in the coming years, and the truth will prevail...

...WELCOME HOME...

[Arrow]

That is a sad commentary. As to the experience with the moving wall here. I had a brother come up to me because I was standing away from it. Feeling as though I had no right to approach it and yet knowing that the man I loved was as dead from that war as those KIA. He noted that I was having a hard time. And put his arm around me and walked me down the length of it then took me over and sat me down with the rest of the brothers there. I can't tell you what they looked like to this day. Too many tears.

[phuloi]

Sorry to say,Andy,but your neck of the woods has definately got it`s share of kooks.Berkley/Cambridge same-same.This ass-hole professor was burning his draft card and planning his vacation in Canada while we were in-country..Troubling thing is that there`s lots more just like him in universities all across the land teaching our kids their bullshit values.I`m sorry he got to make his mark on your time of remembrance,Bro

[DMZ-LT]

Hell if he don't die soon, Frank , Sid and I and the other Psyco Vets will ride up and piss on him NOW ! Ain't no shortage of a$$holes out there both on the left and right coasts. Don't mean nothing - Welcome home, brothers

[colmurph]

Revisionist History? I'll bet he spent the war years in Canada and returned under "Jiminy Cricket's" general amnesty. It gives me the incentive to outlive the SOB just so I can pour a bottle of good Scotch over his grave (once I've filtered it through my kidneys).

[Packo]

It is time for your rebuttal in the news paper. You have the wisdom, the wit, and the time to respond. DO IT!

Our trip to the wall in Easthampton was my last. Nothing to do with Easthampton or that asshole prof, just I've had enough of it. I'm just glad on my last trip to a moving or real wall, I was in the company of such fine men and women. Made my last time memorable.

I agree whole heartedly that the prof in question's attitude is far more the majority on any college campus in this country, saving the US Military Academies, VMI, and the Citidel. A sad state of affairs.

Packo

PS I hope if they come after me for being "a war criminal" he's the first one at the door. Anyone still want us to sign on to that stupid International, (UN), War Crimes Court or whatever the hell it is? You've just read from one of the judges.

[phuloi]

No lie,Buddy...I`m glad that Dubya opted us out of that mess.But it ain`t over yet,me thinks