October 16, 2005
-
Chapter 9 – War (cont.)
Click here for previous chaptersThat spring the National Guard mowed down four students at Kent State. We celebrated Josh’s second birthday in May and my parents flew down from Oregon for a visit when a few months later I arrived at age 31 with hope that things were going to improve. It was exciting and scary to live alone with my kids again. I waded through grieving both their fathers that summer. To this day, something in me has never recovered from not being able to keep either one of them. It was a shining yellow summer mixed with a lot of crying and a little bit of shouting. There were men who came and went quickly in my life, like comets. Out in the world the war killed more Americans and conscientious objector status was legally created. The Equal Rights Amendment passed the Senate and House of Representatives (but in all these years has never had the ratification necessary to become a formal amendment to the Constitution). Women were gathering strength side by side with civil rights and the anti-war movement – and on Hill 805 in the mountains west of Hue, 11 young members of Delta Company died forever.(to be continued)
Deep Thought: “When Gary told me he had found Jesus, I thought, Ya-hoo! We’re rich! But it turned out to be something different.”
Today I am grateful for: Anything ancient
Guess the Movie: “My lord, I think… I think your book is right. ‘The desert is an ocean in which no oar is dipped’ and on this ocean the Bedu go where they please and strike where they please. This is the way the Bedu have always fought. You’re famed throughout the world for fighting in this way and this is the way you should fight now!” Answer: Lawrence of Arabia, 1962.
UN Official: US Troops ‘Starving’ Iraqi Civilians
GENEVA – A United Nations human rights investigator on Friday accused U.S. and British forces in Iraq of breaching international law by depriving civilians of food and water in besieged cities as they try to flush out militants. (Rest of article here.)
Comments (12)
Dear Lionne,
I, for one, wish your history were more “detailed”. Although you brush not only the highlights of your own life, but list the pertinent historical and cultural events of the time, you don’t delve deep enough into the questions I have, as a reader. This sparse “blogwriting” style is fine for blog entries. (I know not too many people on a schedule could slog through some of my longer blog posts in one sitting) but I crave more.
It would be interesting to read about how a woman in her 30s perceived that turbulent time. Certainly you wouldn’t take sides with the “establishment” but you were too “old” to be a hippie from the viewpoint of the “youth” who tagged 30 at the age at which one “turned”. In one of the exploitation films of the time, a rock and roll singer becomes President, and “older” people were put into concentration camps.
I remember thinking that the events as Kent State had really divided the country down the middle. I was bracing for civil war. And I was a junior in high school at the time, too “young” to be a hippie, and reared in a Republican household, where my parents both frowned on “those dirty hippies”.
What a weird time be around. It’s far enough in the past now that it isn’t in everyone’s cultural conscience either. A great series of entries about “War” and also your life story.
Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool
I have to agree with Mike…Your style of writing makes the reader crave more
it is of course your history; but it is something that seems to have been forgotten
in the age of instant access and easy outs…I am loving this truly
I love this, as is!
good stuff. Keep going with it…
Great stuff, . . I could read more, too. But, enjoy it as is, as well.
I was a wee thing in those days, but I have very clear memories of my mother watching the news, my brother registering for the draft, Sesame Street, ERA. Being a bit older and girls in school saying ERA would make us go to the bathroom with BOYS. The girls with feminist mothers were at odds with the rest of the suburban kids. Strange childhood memories, partly innocent but NOT REALLY because the backdrop was so serious and deadly and wrong. I too would like to read more. Very good.
I always enjoy your site- but I especially enjoy your memories of the time when I was too young to really understand what was going on and its significance in my life … I am greatful you are sharing with us all .. Thank you
RYC: Boy your comment made me feel good.. when most other people in my life are telling me to just get over it and put it all in the past, or by crying about it I will make myself sick etc .. when of course I will Heal it All In MY time
xoxoxooo
I’m new to your site. I will have to read back to catch up… and I will.
Thank you for your comment. I’m seeing what I can do about it. It does stick in the mind… much more than I want it to. Have a good one.
I love reading your autobiographical pieces – I hope you will consider publishing it (lulu.com is great and if you are the least interested I will happily share any of my experience there with you and/or assistance)…. I for one would invest in a book by you.
have read back through 5 or 6 posts, wishing I had more time lately to spend reading favorite xangans such as yourself…
peace and blessings,
D
I must add… one of the most deeply etched memories I have as a teenager is walking up the driveway to my highschool (probably 9th grade), wearing my army jacket with American flag sewn on the back, a friend running up to meet me with the front page story of Kent State, the photo of the student kneeling over a murdered student, the screaming silence of her open mouth, her stunned eyes – I painted that scene repeatedly in my attic room, it haunted me as it did so many of us…
and at home, my folks were splitting up and mom was falling apart – the whole world I knew was chaos and no love or strength of conviction seemed solid, it was the worst period of my life. The beginning of a downward slide in our family into alcoholism and many years of tough, tough times…
thankfully time has brought much healing and hope and better years to me, to my family for the most part, and yet our world in general is still so lacking in love and progressing toward being more divinely-human.
Ah…yes these pieces leave you to cruise the internet for more information, that is for sure!