Generational Hope
As my father prepared to return to Viet Nam, I asked him why he had to go fight in the war. He looked at me and replied without pause, “So you and your brothers wont have to.” It was a simplistic answer to a child’s complex question, but somehow my father’s response was understood.
Like a family heirloom locket, I’ve carried my father’s words close to my heart for decades. One can argue about the politics of war, be it Viet Nam, Iraq, or any war in between, but for each generation involved in such conflict, the greatest hope is that this war will be the last so our own children wont have to face it.
As I watch the news and see the daily roll call of young faces of men and women being lost in Iraq, I feel helpless within the tragedy. These kids, and many of them are kids, are conceivably young enough to be my children. I continually question myself as to how my generation and I could have allowed this to happen. It was my generation that grew up on war, watched the realities of the nightly carnage and destruction, spoke with eloquence about the alternatives to war, and sang songs about the promise of peace. We were the generation that would do things differently, intent on preventing all war so our children wouldn’t have to face it. Somehow, I feel as if we have failed.