Editor:
Thank you Farm and Dairy for printing the “When I was in Vietnam I was no hero” guest commentary (Nov. 14, 2013). On Saturday morning I read the column to my husband with tears streaming down my face.
It isn’t that I didn’t know the U.S. has a history of war mongering … it’s just that I can’t help crying about it.
The article made me wonder, what is the true cost of war? What does it cost when your brother returns from war but he can’t hold a job, even though he was brilliant in college and graduated with honors? What earnings did he forfeit, and what’s the cost to us because he can no longer be a part of his marriage, our lives or society?
His entire contribution to society is lost, although slumlords and the alcohol industry have benefited greatly from his life.
A couple of years ago we had a big dinner on Memorial Day and I asked each person around the table to share how the U.S. military had impacted their lives. Every single person told of how they had lost loved ones (dead or dead to them), and the pain this had caused in their family and community.
Thanks for pointing out peace is possible, but the one thing left out of the column is that we have to learn how to work for it.
Annie Warmke
Philo, Ohio
