Last night I returned home from a trip to Washington DC to attend the memorial of my aunt, a peace advocate among the many other contributions she made in her life. I met my mom the day before and we spent a mother-daughter day on the National Mall. Before delighting in our favorite museums, we took the long walk to the Lincoln, Korean War and Vietnam War Memorials.
My parents were the flower children of the 60s, so my roots are planted in the principles of nonviolence, peace, and equality. Although my grandparents and great grandparents had impressive military careers, the protests that sprang out of the Vietnam War created a deep chasm about how my family regards war. Take the idea of war being a necessary evil. Before Vietnam my family would emphasis necessary, after evil.
But the veterans…
As I walked the Vietnam Memorial words from a book I had read on the plane that morning echoed in my mind. Here’s a short excerpt from Brené Brown’s bestseller, Daring Greatly:
For soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, coming home is more lethal than being in combat. From the invasion of Afghanistan to the summer of 2009, the US military lost 761 soldiers in combat in that country. Compare that to the 817 who took their own lives over the same period.
Numbers are funny.
Their magnitude is relative unless one of those numbers is your relative. Names matter more, which is why the Vietnam Memorial is so very powerful. It touches on the humanity sacrificed. As I read the names of all those men, I couldn’t help but think of how carefully mothers had chosen those names for their beloved baby boys.
When we advocate for peace, let’s not forget that peace is not just needed between borders, but within the hearts and minds of all people. The men and women returning from our War on Terror are terrorized themselves. We owe them not just remembrance, but practical help and love in learning to live again in the land of the free
and the home of the brave.
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