I left Vietnam when I was eighteen years old. During the year that I was there, I had changed-- both physically as well as emotionally. When I was at home, my mother used to ask me when I was going to become a man. I can now answer her question better than I ever thought possible. I truly had grown from a boy to a man. Now that I am out of Vietnam, of course I can look back on my actions and think that they were not correct. People look back on historical events all the time and they judge people for their actions. Take the Johnstown Flood for example. There was a dam that broke and killed 2,209 people in Johnstown. Well, there was a club that happened to own the land that the dam was on and that club happened to have a president. The state of Pennsylvania wanted to sue the president of the club for 2,209 counts of negligent homicide. There were problems with the dam but the owner did nothing about them. However, no one had any complaints about the condition of the dam until it broke. Of course people could look back and blame the owner of the dam for the problems because they needed someone to blame. That is what happens with history all the time—people get judged and blamed by people who don’t understand conditions at the time. People cannot make decisions if they are not in the same environment.
I guess that also means that I should not look back and judge my actions while fighting in the war. I have decided that what I did is now in the past so there is nothing I can do to change it. The other day I was with my granddaughter Lia and she wanted me to watch a movie with her (her and her Disney princesses) and I denied her request because I was reminiscing about Vietnam and I told her I was busy. That struck home for me after i realized that I had ignored what really mattered in order to think about something that I could do nothing to change—once I had realized what I had done, I no longer cared what happened in Vietnam. I am not helping myself by continuing to look in the past. I need to live in the present. All I want is my family because that is all I have left when I take everything into consideration. I have decided to stop thinking constantly about Vietnam and take some time for my family. This is why I have decided to end this blog. The memories that I write here remain the only link between my life now and my life then. Without it I hope to, not forget my memories, but to file them away for later use. This blog has given me a chance to document most of those memories so that I could remove the worst ones from my head. In the words of the great General Douglas MacArthur, “this is my final roll call with you.” Thank you for growing alongside me and I hope that this has provided insight to an issue that continues to plague the minds of Vietnam War veterans.
Consider the following advantages:
ReplyDelete1. You will be able to do better analysis if you take the time to process and think through the material over a few weeks instead of a few days or hours. Doing all of the work at the last minute will probably impact the quality of your work.
2. You cannot repeat comments. For example, if another student has identified and analyzed an example of an archetype in the novel, you will not be able to write about the same example. Therefore, the earlier you post, the more options you will have
The lists of threads that you must post on and directions are included below. You will also find the same directions posted as the first message of each thread. Acceptable posts will include correct spelling and avoid abbreviations and slang typically used in text messages and IMs. You may want to type your comment on Word, proofread it and then copy and paste it onto the forum. Comments should be complete and in depth. Minimum length: 200 Words. (Note, this paragraph has approximately 90 words—it’s not too bad)
You may not duplicate a comment. You may not duplicate someone else’s comment. You may not duplicate . . .tee hee. Read what has already been posted on the thread, and do not use an example that has already been used. You can, however, respond to others’ comments!
Note: If you include unacceptable language or content in your posts, your user account will be
deleted and you will receive a zero for this assignment.
If you have any questions or problems, feel free to email me at abarnhart@westerly.k12.ri.us or
anne_barnhart@yahoo.com.
Post once on FIVE of these threads:
Chapter 1 -- Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It's Not)
Analyze any quest in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man using insights from HRLP. You may make an original comment, or respond to someone else’s comment. However, do not repeat another comment. You must say something original. In your post, be sure to include specific quotes from the text, with page numbers, to support your conclusions.