Re-enacting a war shouldn’t be called ‘celebration’

I have to comment about the headline on the front page of the local section of Sunday’s paper, “Civil War Celebration.”

I guess there’s some educational value in re-enacting history, as a way to better understand what happened then, and people do like to dress up in costumes and make a lot of noise, but “celebration”?

We don’t “celebrate” the Vietnam war, probably because there are still plenty of people around who remember how horrible it was. Perhaps in another hundred years, however, when the war widows, the orphans, the maimed and those still mentally tormented by the Vietnam war are all long gone, it will become a quaint piece of our history, to be re-enacted with camouflage and fake napalm. If so, I’m glad I won’t be around to see it.

Claire ProntnickiWaterville

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