50 Years
I posted this several years ago and it received about as much attention as the Vets did. Maybe things have changed.
Dear America,
50 years have passed since the last soldier returned.
50 years and the streets are still quiet, void of welcoming crowds and marching bands.
50 years since six million service members returned from one hostile land to rejoin another hostile land.
50 years and the shouts of “Baby Killer” still echo in their minds.
50 years and our veterans are still dying in the streets. Not the streets of Hanoi, but the streets and homeless shelters of America.
50 years since a war was fought, not because it was morally right, but because it was politically convenient and a stimulant to a flagging economy.
50 years and the six million are memorialized by a slash in the ground and a wall of names. Names that 50 years from now will be anonymous.
50 years have passed and once again, a draft dodging coward has been elected to lead the very country he refused to serve when called upon.
50 years is taking its toll. Fewer and fewer Vietnam veterans are now left to stand and represent.
50 years is what it has taken for America to remember how to honor its latest generation of veterans.
Regards,
Those who served.
About the Creator
Mark Gagnon
I have five published books: Mitigating Circumstances, Short Stories for Open Minds, Short Stories from an Untethered Mind, Unmitigated Greed, and Short Stories to Spark the Imagination.
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