America's bizzare love of war?

As I prepare for my foray into Vietnam -- and as America celebrates Memorial Day -- I must admit that I'm shocked at the savage stupidity of so many of my fellow Americans. Memorial Day is really a day to consider WHY we go to war, who sends us to war, the benefits of war and who profits from war. Instead, Fox News and too many others give us all a line of crap about "sacrifice" and "country" -- and lots of "thank you, sir, for your service to our country"-type statements. Decoded, that means: Thank you, buddy, because I didn't have to go, nor did my son or daughter.
Everyone knows that the men and women fighting this war in Iraq are some of America's poorest, least educated citizens. They're good kids, for sure, but they've been duped by a flashy media and, more importantly, proganda generated by corporate-owned media, the military industrial complex and the rest of the swine who finance these wars and make money supplying guns, bombs and ammo, among other things.
And as I head off to Vietnam -- a land that was decimated by America's war-mongering politicians and generals -- I can tell you that war is bullshit. And so can the millions who continue to suffer from the affects of that war. Have you seen those pictures of kids today born with grotesque deformities, thanks to Agent Orange? Two heads? Missing limbs? They're still there, my friends. I've read about South Vietnamese soldiers who, after the war there, were ostracized by their country. They were forced to live on the streets. Today, they beg for their food. Sounds familiar, right? Because there are thousands of US Vietnam war veterans living on the streets of America, begging for food and housing, crazy nuts from the stuff they've experienced, strung out, burned out. It took the US government decades to acknowledge the horrendous affects Agent Orange had on returning US vets. Today, our government and many Americans refuse to acknowledge the terrible affects AO has had on the people of Vietnam. You want to heal the scars of war? Then tell our politicians to admit America's sickening role in the decimation of Indochina.
Meanwhile, today's Iraq war vets are just as nuts: missing limbs, internal scars and the men and women still there are wondering why they're there.
These are my thoughts as I head out for Vietnam. I won't live there long. I'm an American patriot, always will be. I love this country -- because it's beautiful and, I think, no place can compare. I'm a veteran myself. It's only that I love the things that America once represented and can still represent if we'd just hold our corporations, generals and politicians accountable. And I do hold them accountable. But on this Memorial Day, I'm thinking of Peace.

Onto the edge and Vietnam

Welcome to the first posting for On the Edge, a blog about my experiences, thoughts, etc. while traveling South East Asia and beyond. I've been around in my 40 or so years on planet Earth, but this next journey -- first to Vietnam and then to various other places in the world -- represents, literally, a departure from the norm for me. I was a journalist in Northern California for a few years and before that in other states. Actually, I've worked as a reporter for newspapers and other media from Hawaii to Georgia. But, alas, the newspaper business is going down the tubes. If the Internet, as one octogenarian American congressman once said, is a "collection of tubes," then the business is literally going down the tubes. The Internet has replaced the newspaper as the medium of choice for news readers. The result is that many of the papers I've worked for have cut back, some of have gone out of business, a few claimed bankruptcy and still others just faded away -- like an old soldier. An old friend of mine once speculated that the failures of all those papers had one thing in common: Me. Geez, some friend.
My last reporting/writing gig ended in bad blood for everyone involved. Curses were exchanged; retributions plotted. I had to move on. Forgiveness is the answer, they say, but I'm too pissed off for that just yet. Instead, I'm heading out to Vietnam to teach and write and find human contact (sans Avian Flu-infected folks, I hope) and gain some kind of perspective on it all. I leave the California Bay Area full of hope and promise. I suspect, however, that some of that hope will be dashed upon the rugged reef of reality. Someone once told me that high expectations only lead to heartbreak. Damn them, I say. Because once you lose hope, what else is there? And, frankly, a journalist should always be interested in what lies just around the corner. Therefore, I push on to Ho Chi Minh City -- formerly known as Saigon -- with great anticipation and a healthy dose of hope and curiosity. Wish me luck. And continue to check into this blog often.