When I was younger I would steal my
older brothers’ dirty magazines and thought it was awesome. Occasionally I
would sneak down stairs late at night and watch Cinemax. I really thought I was
getting away with something. I was young and stupid. As I grew older the
magazines lost their appeal, I realized stuff that they talked about would
never happen to me, until college. I watched an old Cinemax movie, Heavy Metal when I was really young and
saw it some years later, thought to myself, “This movie is crap, the acting
sucks and I actually think I am stupider after watching it.”
Fast forward to the present, I have
a ten year old daughter and I would be extremely upset if she were doing the
things I did. Watching the segments of Deep
Throat in class made me think to myself, “I don’t want my kids exposed to
the.” Twenty years ago I may have thought differently, but now that I am a
parent trying to raise my children “right” I think the time and place for porn
is not where my ten year old can access it. I guess I’m just getting old.
After
class on Monday I was thinking about what to blog about. We had discussed so
many issues: execution, Ron Kovic, monks burning themselves in protest and the
Ho Chi Minh Trail. Out of all these topics, I thought of how horrible Agent
Orange is. Then Tuesday I was in the Veteran Affairs (VA) Hospital and struck
up a conversation with a Veteran who had served two tours in Vietnam and was
now suffering from cancer caused by Agent Orange, which gave me a personal
connection to the negative effects of the chemical. He also told me that his
children had genetic birth defects, which is common in people who were exposed
to the chemical.
I told my wife about my encounter at the VA
and she told me about her best friend, Kate. She was born with physical defects
that, through many surgeries, have almost been corrected. My wife told me that
Kate’s father was in Vietnam and was exposed to Agent Orange and that is the
cause of Kate’s physical impairments. Not only do I have a personal connection
with a person affected by Agent Orange, but my wife does as well.
Six
days ago the VA posted a link for Veterans that were exposed to Agent Orange
and other herbicides used to defoliate Vietnam. This link is also for the
children of these Veterans that suffer like my wife’s friend Kate. The link is:
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/,
and it is filled with great information and resources.
This Photo shows C1-30's in a staggered formation spraying Agent Orange over the forest canopy, with no regard for who it might be landing on, friend or foe.
The main Character in “Born on the 4th of July,” Ron
Kovich is a person I can relate to. I did not see the kind of combat he did or
sustain the injuries that he has, but we are both Veterans of war that were
injured while serving our country and like Ron Kovich, I am dealing with the Veteran
Affairs(VA). The VA has come a long way since Kovich’s era, but they still
suck.
In July of 2009, I fell off an obstacle at the Air Assault
course and hurt my shoulder. I was taken to medical, they gave me Ibuprofen and
light duty for a week and said, “I banged it pretty good.” It was medically
documented that I had sustained this injury. In February 2012, I reinjured my
shoulder while training. I was due to get out of the Army in less than a month so
medical didn’t thoroughly document the event. On June 1, 2012 I went to the VA and
told them about my shoulder they ran test and MRI’s and on February 20, 2013 I
finally got the surgery I had needed from 2009.
Very long story short, on May 31, 2012 I filed an injury claim
with the VA stating 30 service-connected injuries. On February 20, 2013 I had this
surgery and now I am 100% temporarily disabled, unable to work. To compensate
for me not being able to work, the VA is suppose to give me disability
compensation. I went to the Veteran Affairs Benefits office to find out why my
claim was taking almost a year and was told they are backed up two years, and I am
going to have to wait. I informed them that I have no means of income, due to
the surgery they performed, and they told me they were “working on it.”
So I go to the Maryland state VA office to talk to someone,
I walk in at 3:00pm and sit down. A half-hour goes by and no one acknowledges my
presence. So I pull out my camera and start recording what they are all doing,
which is not working on claims. The large man is the Director of Veteran
Affairs for the state of Maryland. He saw me and didn’t even say, ”someone will
be with you shortly.”
I figured out why Veterans are not recieving their benefits: too many
people are not doing their job.
video by Jesse Youngs
As of the writing of this blog, there is still no word on the status of my claim.
The United States military tries to sell the image of a well-disciplined
and morally just organization across the board. We are supposed to fight
tyranny and spread democracy, so everyone can enjoy “Life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness.” Occasionally, aspects of the United States military are “caught”
doing what it's suppose to prevent. The My Lai massacre is one of the most horrific
acts committed by the Army and one of the most disturbing events I have ever
read about. There is absolutely no excuse or reason for those types of war
crimes to be committed. All of the men involved, from the top brass to the
Private should have been court marshaled for war crimes and shot.
On March 16, 1968, two platoons from Charlie Company 1st Battalion,
20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade, America Division went into My Lai looking
for Viet Cong fighters, on the orders of Lt. William Calley to “search and
destroy.” There are many conflicting accounts about how the event began,
but what is fact is that not all the Soldiers took part in the massacre led by Calley, but
enough of them did. The Army's official report states that only
10 Soldiers actually carried out the massacre. Reports estimate that 500 people were killed
in a few hours. Some of the corpses were mutilated. Some women who weren't
killed were gang-raped. Other villagers were beaten and tortured. The massacre was
filmed by an Army photographer Ron Haeberle. The news of My Lai didn’t reach
the public until 1969.
On October 12, 1970 during his court-marshal, Lt. William Calley
testified that Cpt. Ernest Medina had ordered that anybody they couldn't move
would be "wasted." His defense and justification for the massacre was
they were just “following orders.” This is why Calley said he and his men
killed 350 Vietnamese, including more than 100 civilian men, women, and
children. Medina was found guilty and given a life sentence, which was commuted
to three years house arrest.
The Life of a 1950’s
Teenager by Richard Powers discusses how ridiculously conservative American
adults’ views were toward teenagers. Powers discusses two phases adults used to
categorize teenagers. The first phase was marginalization. “Teens were
marginalized by the adults, who didn’t want to be bothered with the very
different values the teenagers held.” Adults felt that the teenagers were rebelling
and questioning. This rebelling and questioning was not how the adults were
raised, so they could not understand. When the adults of the 1950’s were told
to perform, they did so with no questions asked.
The second phase of categorization was condemnation of
self-expression that didn’t conform to conservative societal norms. Adults
blamed these ideas of self-expression on Rock and Roll or, as it was referred
to back then, the Devil’s music. This condemnation extended beyond individual
households to society as a whole. New rules, regulations and prohibitions were
established to limit teenage self-expression. If a male went to school with his
hair touching his ears he could be expelled. Girls were not allowed to wear
pants and guys could not wear jeans.
Despite these categorizations and limitations, life as a
1950’s teenager doesn’t seem to be that bad compared to what teenagers face
today. Those kids watched Elvis shake his hips and thought that was provocative.
Contemporary teens have thousands of television channels and the internet at
their finger-tips. On afternoon TV, it is not uncommon to see a drunken girl fellating
a banana, while half naked in a hot tub with multiple men. The 1950’s were a time of censorship, but they
didn’t have the social issues we face today: schools being shot up, kids being
killed for wearing the wrong color and kids just having a total lack of
respect. When I was younger I thought parental censoring was wrong, and I
always tried to push the limits. Now that I am a parent I try to censor what my
kids are exposed to.
I have already discussed McNamara and Truman’s decision to
drop the bombs in my previous blogs. My feelings have not changed. I still fully
support those men for the tough decisions they made. The drone era of warfare
is a blessing. One drone can decimate a large population of the enemy, destroy
fortifications and prop precision ordnances, while American Soldiers are far
from danger. Granted there have been errors on the part of operators, when it
comes to positively identifying combat targets, but every war has collateral
damage.
Peace organizations, human rights groups and even the ACLU
oppose the use of drones. Their argument is that drones are illegal under
International Law and the U.S. policy on assassination which has been addressed
by a series of Executive Orders, starting in 1976 by President Ford. These
orders have prohibited employees of the United States from engaging in
assassination during peacetime of political figures, but there is a
presidential loophole, the Executive Orders have not clearly defined the exact
meaning of, “assassination.” On July 30, 2008, President George Bush issued
Executive Order 13470 amending Ronald Reagan's Executive Order 12333. Now,
enemies of the United States can be targeted and eliminated. All of this information can be found in the
National Archives.
Drones are a blessing on the battlefield. They save American
lives and the psychological effect they have on the enemy is demoralizing. This video is intense.
This semester was great. I learned that if I apply myself
and don’t drink and miss class I’m a good student. History and Technology was
one of the best classes I have taken in a long time. I really enjoyed the open
discussion, the flow of ideas and the different perspectives. I have to admit
that at first I was very hesitant to sympathize with the Japanese. I was not taught
to sympathize with the enemy and that is what I was always taught they were. It
easier to accept the tragedy if they are dehumanized and I feel that is what American
history has done to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now that I have a new
perspective on the events that occurred I feel sorrow. It is painful to think
that all that intelligence was wasted on destruction and not progress.
Hopefully mankind will not destroy itself, but sadly I feel that it is in our
nature to do so.
