Wednesday, January 21, 2009

A very Short Trip... down memory lane

One of my favorite lines from Obama’s Inaugural Speech states, “Your people will judge you on what you build, NOT what you destroy…” I am looking forward to what he is going to build.

Mimi at Bloggingham Castle has a photo of Martin Luther King on her blog and below it she asks: Wouldn’t you love to know what they are thinking today?

And that short question brought back this song…



It's really kind of neat... the result of a multimedia project at Milford High School (although I am not quite sure where Milford High is).

Last July I turned 60 and was feeling more mortal than I normally do. I looked up an old college friend who had been very involved in Freedom Marches. He even went to an unintegrated (until he got there) black college in South Carolina. I believe it was Claflin College. I was with him the night Martin Luther King was shot. He was devastated. He has gone on in his life and become very successful as a consultant who works for industry and education -- for the past six years he focused his attention on the k-12 school counseling profession for Rhode Island school systems.

And I traveled further down Memory Lane… The time of this song was a time of men going off to fight in a war that wasn’t a war (Vietnam). My first husband was one of those. He came back a changed man. He was an infantry Marine (a “grunt”). He trampled through the jungles of Vietnam. At that time they were using a chemical called Agent Orange (a defoliant) to more easily find the enemy. My ex-husband died almost 9 years ago at the age of 52… yes, we were still friends. And, although I cannot prove it, I believe that Agent Orange was at least a partial cause of his death.

I can't believe how long ago all that happened. I haven't changed (she says tongue-in-cheek), have you?

4 comments:

  1. Agent Orange killed my brother too -- in a round about sort of way. He committed suicide at the age of 56 because he could not bare the pain of peripheral neuropathy any longer. We FIRMLY believe agent orange was the cause of his PN. The doctors had just told him a few days before that there was nothing MORE they could do for him ... and that it was going to continue to get worse. That was an UGLY war... So many of our men suffered years and years after it was over.

    On a brighter note, I am quite certain that if it were possible MLK was GRINNING in his grave yesterday! I'm SURE he was grinning up in Heaven! And that line of Obama's was MY favorite too!

    Glad your hubby enjoyed his gifts - and as for dinner - it's the THOUGHT that counts!

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  2. sarge got cancer from agent orange. i often wondered how many vietnamese did too?

    smiles, bee
    xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

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  3. That trip is pending for the article before my 65th birthday.

    Come pick up an award at my place.

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  4. Carol, I have a friend whose ex-husband died a Agent Orange complications... I lived through the 60s in spirit with you. I got married then, and finished my eduction. I remember 1968 very well!

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