I write of a week in 1968, Feb. 11-17. I was a teenage boy during those times. Just like many teenage boys in our country, Vietnam and the draft was in the back of my mind — always. What happened that week? It was the deadliest week for U.S. soldiers in the entire war: 534 came home in body bags and 2,547 wounded. There was another price paid by those who served, and in many cases, it didn’t raise it’s an ugly head until years later: post-traumatic stress disorder. Many suffered and suffer still, some became addicts, some died from addictions, some just barely make it, some are homeless, and some committed and will commit suicide. That toll will never be truly measured. For those of us who lived through those years, it is never forgotten. It shaped us and forever changed us. The presidents of our country from Truman through Nixon failed us, costing thousands of lives lost and destroyed.

Today we are in a new war. This time nobody gets to avoid the draft, legally or illegally, or be a “Fortunate Son.” This isn’t based on a racist draft, your standing in society, or even your sex. The virus just doesn’t care. Our president, Donald Trump, lead our country to the biggest health and financial disaster in the last 100 years. We are losing on average 6,200 lives a week and countless others are suffering. Little does it matter to President Trump the price in human life and suffering.

I thought our darkest days were behind us. I was wrong. As I fast approach 70 I see little to encourage me about what we are leaving for our children and future generations. When ideology and hate win over science and truth, people suffer and die. Nothing has changed.

 

Mike Grove

Belgrade