Friday, April 19, 1985
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Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
touncona
Remember the vets,
shame and protests
Ten years ago this month, the United States lost a war for the
first time in its history. It's been over for a decade, but the
Vietnam War continues to have a profound effect.
We not only lost, we can't even be sure that we were the good
guys, unlike World War I or World War II, when American involve
ment clearly aided other nations whose freedom was threatened.
The fact that the North Vietnamese were the bad guys wasn't
and isn't sufficient to make U.S. forces the good guys. The
consciences of those of us who were not there (who are old enough
to remember) are indelibly marked with the image of a naked
Vietnamese girl, burned by a U.S. napalm strike, screaming in
terror and pain.
The Americans who were there can't forget either. "Everything I
see is blown through with smoke, everything is on fire everywhere.
It doesn't matter that memory distorts; every image, every sound
comes back out of smoke and the smell of things burning," writes
Vietnam veteran Michael Herr in his book "Dispatches."
Herr and the other men who fought in Vietnam came in out of
the smoke to a homeland that didn't seem to want them. Ameri
cans were ashamed: They were ashamed of losing the war,
ashamed of the pictures they had seen on the news of burning
villages. Americans were mortified at hearing body count after
body count, seeing body bag after body bag. Such a society threw
no ticker tape, gave no parades, sang no hymns for the returning
warriors: It faced the other direction.
Apparently, Americans are doing another about-face
on the Vietnam War. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedi
cated in Washington, D.C. in 1983, mostly with money raised by
veterans. The memorial lists the names of the more than 58,000
American soldiers who died in Vietnam. It is symbolic of the long
overdue acceptance of veterans by American society.
For many veterans, acceptance and the memorial are too
little too late. But it is too much for veterans, indeed, for anyone to
expect glory for what was an ultimately inglorious war effort.
The realization that American involvement in Vietnam could
have been wrong is the lesson to be salvaged from the smoke.
The Vietnam War was an indigenous war. It wasn't a war for the
French or the Americans. The French learned after many years and
thousands dead that the people of Vietnam would not tolerate
their presence. They left. The United States came in to pick up the
pieces and in the process ended up a shattered country itself.
Ho Chi Minh was immensely popular with the people of Viet
nam. His troops were the people. His form of government promised
rule by the people of Vietnam, not colonialists. His troops spoke
Vietnamese and lived and worked among the farmers of Southeast
Asia. Americans could not speak the language, did not understand
the culture, nor did most attempt to. We bombed the North
Vietnamese incessantly, never learning that bombs only set the
people harder against us. Vietnam was truly a "quagmire" for the
United States, as David Halberstam so succinctly put it. The more
we struggled, the deeper we got.
It's true that we had the best of intentions. But our methods
lost the war before it started. The people never wanted colonial
rule after France in any case, in any form.
The rule the people of Vietnam have now is less than ideal.
But, as France and the United States learned, that was not for
outsiders to decide.
It's good that we're no longer turning our backs on the Vietnam
War. It's good that, as the April 15 Time magazine reports, U.S.
colleges are offering hundreds of courses on the conflict. We have
much to learn from the war which was at once a blessing and a
curse a curse because it permanently sullied U.S. history and
scarred both soldiers and civilians, and a blessing because it
demonstrated for us the wrongful use of American military might.
While we should remember with respect those who served, we
should also remember our shame and horror. We should remember
the power to question exercised by anti-war demonstrators, and
exercise that power ourselves.
Ten years after Vietnam, there are still lots of trouble spots out
there ripe for intervention, and there are lots of empty body bags
waiting for our dead.
EDITOR
GENERAL MANAGER
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NATIONS CAPITAL-
'Romantics' make love meaningful
Now is the time for love, hope and
crabgrass all to spring eternally.
Old Man Winter has gone and in his
place we have received a beautiful show of
nature at its best and brightest. Summer
is here in all its glory, bringing with it
thoughts of carefree days and warm fun
filled nights. For many college students
summer is a time for travel and expe
rience. For others, tied down by family or
occupational considerations, it is a time of
rest from the drudgeries of school. For
almost all of us, however, it will be a time
to meet new people, and perhaps for some,
to fall in love.
Van
Kloempken
It seems that this topic never wanders
far from our minds at any time of the day or
night. We constantly are bombarded with
it. Magazines, books, movies and worst of
all, commercials, saturate us with some
one else's idea of what sex and love are.
Interestingly enough, a person can wit
ness the results of such a bombardment
right here on our campus. Some of the
things that students do to attract the eye
of the opposite sex can be quite interest
ing. And while off-campus activities can
become even more outrageous, they still
are regulated by a person's desire to be the
essence of whatever popular image is "in."
It is undeniable that the commercial
nature of our society is responsible for a
large part of our preoccupation with sex
and love. The sole purpose of corporations
involved in selling a product is to create
some sort of dissatisfaction among us, the
consumers, so we will feel the need to rush
out and satisfy ourselves with their
product.
The diet drink commercials are a
perfect example. They show us pictures of
beautiful bodies and try to make us feel
ashamed of our own. And after we are
totally indoctrinated to believe that is
what we want, they claim their product is
the way to get it. Just one diet Pepsi a day
and you'll look like a cross between Arnold
Schwartzeneger and Bo Derek. Amazing
isn't it?
It has been said that sexual pleasure is
the only really unlimited resource we
have. All other activities use resources
that are limited, but as long as men and
women exist, sexual pleasure can be had
indefinitely. Moreover, those pleasures
that are limited (the number of books
made is limited to the number of trees
grown) are also much harder to obtain
than simple sex.
From this line of thought came the the
ory that social rules concerning behavior
between the sexes evolved as an attempt
to harness the desire for each other and
channel the bottled up energy into more
socially productive activities. This has,
almost always meant building those
harder-to-obtain resources that everyone
can enjoy a school or a library, for
instance.
Furthermore, the logical extension of
this theory is that what we perceive as
"romantic love" really does not exist. The
feeling that out there somewhere is Mr. or
Ms. Right, and all you have to do is wait for
him or her is actually an artificially
created desire. This way the need for plea
sure is unsatisfied, forcing people to look
elsewhere, usually to material goods. His
desire for pleasure may be eased some
what if he buys a new stereo or waterbed,
but it can never be fully satisfied because
he really wants romantic love, which
doesn't exist. A good example of this is
that, for many men, a car serves as a tem
porary pleasure-giver until they find what
they believe to be "the real thing."
In any event, it is easy to see how
vitally important it is to the manufactur
ers in this country to keep us unsatisfied.
Unfortunately, the result of this kind of
"social brainwash" is a perverted and cor
rupted social view concerning sexual atti
tudes. Dissatisfaction often leads to frus
tration, which often leads to anger, which
in turn can become violence. When people
find that the traditional method of "wait
ing for fate" has not gotten them the satis
faction that society tells them they want,
they may turn to unhealthy methods to
iQOK ior ii. tor instance, incest, sodomy
and rape have been viewed as alternate
methods for finding satisfaction for a per
son who has been frustrated too much.
The psychologists tell us that we must
destroy romantic ideals and learn to be
satisfied with ourselves and the relation
ships we have. The search for that special
someone is ridiculous because it could be
anyone if both people are willing to work
at it. They say that a great deal of the
social inhibitions on sex should be removed
because, after all, nothing is more plentiful.
So naturally someone subscribing to
this theory of sexual oppression would be
pleased to see the relaxation of social
taboos on physical sex, like we have now.
In fact, according to a recent government
study, only one woman in five waits until
marriage to have sex. That's down from
almost 50 percent in 1960. There is no
question that people are becoming much
more free with their passions.
The problem with the theory is that sex
is viewed as a purely physical act, with the
sole purpose of giving ourselves pleasures.
Love, on the other hand, is something mys
terious and has nothing to do with sex at
all.
Unfortunately, in the search for
love people have begun to use sex as a yard
stick to determine if they have found that
"perfect someone." If it doesn't work out,
they just shrug their shoulders and look
forward to the next encounter with eager
anticipation.
This is wrong. Sex is more than that. It
can be a physical expression of a deep
commitment to oneself and to one's partner
of love and understanding. You cannot
"make love," you build it. And physical
attraction is one of the tools to use. It
should be highly valued and sparingly
given. And, like any true gift, it should be
given freely and with no strings attached.
For those of you who have already found
"that special someone," I congratulate
you. You have found something rare (no
matter what any stupid theory says), and
you should guard it with your life. For
those of you still searching, I'm afraid
you'll have to settle for cars and stereos for
a while, but don't give up. And don't com
promise your values or self respect. You've
got too much to lose.
Letters
Cartoon misrepresents
NRA firearm owners
I was sickened at the sight of the anti
National Rifle Association cartoon in the
Daily Nebraskan on April 18.
The cartoon, in my opinion, is a flagrant
misrepresentation of gun owners as well
as members of the NRA. I was raised in a
small Nebraska town of 5,000. My father
has owned guns all his life and was once a
member of the NRA, although I am not.
My father and I have enjoyed many
hours of trap shooting and range shooting.
as well as countless hours of hunting
without injuring ourselves or anyone else.
Most members of the NRA are more
responsible than the average person with
firearms because they want to protect
their investments by leaving them in a
locked gun cabinet.
Granted, a number of small children
accidentally shoot themselves each year
in the United States, that is unfortunate.
My question to you is, how many of their
fathers belong to the NRA?
David M. Butler
sophomore
accounting
Letter
Policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief
letters to the editor from all readers
and interested others.
Letters will be selected for publica
tion on the basis cf clarity, originality,
timeliness and space available. The
Daily Nebraskan retains the right to
edit all material submitted.
Readers also are welcome to submit
material as guest opinions. Whether
material should run as a letter or guest
opinion, or not run, is left to the edi
tor's discretion.
