Saturday, May 10, 2008

This moved me



H/T Julie Clawson

The video is devastating.

I can end the planet in a holocaust. in a holocaust. in a holocaust. in a holocaust. in a holocaust. in a holocaust.

It made me weep. It's easy for me to sit here and weep. I'm not directly experiencing the holocaust to which I have been a party.

My father, beyond doubt, killed beautiful little children in Vietnam 40 years ago. And then he came home, and took steps to make sure that I got enough food to eat, and love and education to get by on, and perhaps even excel. My father helped repair aircraft, beyond doubt, which were used to saturate the Vietnamese countryside with agent orange. And the Laotian countryside with unexploded ordnance. And now those others--the ones who are now 33--my age--I mean the ones who didn't get killed--

I have brothers and sisters over there who having escaped being killed by my father, and our fathers, now live with excruciating deformities as a result of their moms being exposed to agent orange during their gestation. Or else they are missing a leg, or an arm, or have other deformities because they found a piece of unexploded ordnance left by my father--our fathers.

I can end the planet in a holocaust. in a holocaust. in a holocaust. in a holocaust.

My weeping is grotesque. Lying here with all my limbs, and no deformities, and 1st world medicine to provide every comfort for my dying mother.

7 comments:

Joe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe said...

No it isn't grotesque, Benjamin, but it is kinda pointless (sorry that sounds stupidly harsh but I can't think of a better word).

I directly or indirectly cause most of the world's problems. My country's satanic empire-building has been a direct result of most of the world's great wars. Just by existing I am holding people in chains of poverty.

And there are tree possible reactions: ignore it, try to carry the world's problems or try to do something about it. I'd suggest the first is unethical and the second a route to mental illness.

byron smith said...

Made me cry too.

Benjamin Ady said...

Byron

Thank you for saying so. There's something utterly delightful in not crying alone.

byron smith said...

Couldn't get it out of my head all afternoon and had to show it to Jess when she got home.

I really appreciate how you keep bringing up the same issues in different ways to help us all "get" the cost of war.

Benjamin Ady said...

Byron, I guess some other people found it moving as well. It seems to be at #3 on Billboard's modern rock tracks

Anonymous said...

actually a lot of people just like the song if you read the comments on youtube. a lot of people don't even listen to song lyrics.