Message from the Past Rings True
Today
(3/25/03)
For
nearly 30 years, I have watched, listened and tried to understand. I have tried
to understand The Vietnam war and why we went there. Why my father had to go
there. Why we didn’t win.
The United States of America is the mightiest nation on earth. She has become so
through the sacrifices made by her Veterans, especially those who did not fly
home in the passenger cabins of the freedom birds, the ones who gave the
ultimate sacrifice for their country.
I cannot look at someone I know to have been a protester without feeling at
least a slight twinge of pity for them. They are the ones who should not be able
to look in the mirror in the morning. They are the ones who refused to see,
refused to face their own fears and used your sacrifices and pain to justify
their own cowardice.
You, as a veteran, understand that words like “Honor”, “Courage”, “Freedom” and
“Democracy” are not just buzzwords to be thrown around like confetti during an
election campaign.
You understand that for every “Right” guaranteed by the constitution, there are
no less than 7 responsibilities and that most people don’t live up to their end
of that bargain.
You have learned to forgive while knowing you will never forget.
You have made the world safer for Democracy while the very people who sent you
seemed to be doing their best to erode it.
You have been made the butt of jokes and focus of anger.
You have been called names and told that your efforts were meaningless.
You know how it feels to get up and walk away from a battlefield while knowing
that some or all of the men you walked in with, won’t. Also, that it is only
because they didn�t that you can.
I do not understand these things and never will. I was barely 16 months old when
my father boarded a plane bound for Vietnam. At the time, I didn’t understand
how lucky I was when he stepped off that plane a year later. I could not
comprehend that there were many children my age that would never know their
fathers, because their fathers didn’t come home.
I do now and I am grateful.
Words fail me at this point. I cannot find words to express how deeply grateful
I am to you for making the sacrifices you have, so that I can enjoy the freedom
that I do. I recognize that many thousands of men have died, or seen their lives
destroyed, to give me that freedom. It is a gift that I know better than to take
for granted.
The only words I can find, and they seem woefully inadequate, are:
“Thank You”
C. S Faherty –
Proud Son of a Vietnam Veteran
Keep up
the great work. I will continue to my part until every last soldier returns home
safely. Thanks largely to the protesters, too many good men died in vain during
Vietnam. Thank you for doing your part to see that history is not allowed to
repeat itself.
-C.
Spencer Faherty
Yelm, Washington
An Open Letter to Vietnam
Veterans: