After Watching the Final Segment of PBS’s Vietnam War Documentary

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the Fog
the Pain
the Loss
the Grief
the Waste
the Carnage
the Courage
the Sadness
the Madness
the Heartache
the Brokenness

the Remembering
the Forgetting
the Suffering
the Forgiving
the Renewing
the Honoring
the Healing
the Hoping

the Redeeming

the Madness
the Madness

the Echos

the Madness
the Madness

***

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See 1-minute snippets of wisdom and other musings from the world’s great thinkers and artists, accompanied by lovely photography at Traversing’s 1-minute Facebook mini-blog: http://www.facebook.com/TraversingBlog

Twitter: @AndrewHidas

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewhidas/

Deep appreciation to the photographers!

Elizabeth Haslam, whose photos (except for the books) grace the rotating banner at the top of this page. Some rights reserved under Creative Commons licensing, see more at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lizhaslam/

Library books photo by Larry Rose, all rights reserved, contact: larry@rosefoto.com   

Photo by David Hoffman of a sculpture by Abbe Godwin entitled “After the Firegfight 6,” part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Capitol Square, Raleigh, North Carolina, see more at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/universalpops/

Photo by Geoff Livingston of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C., designed  by Maya Linn, see more at:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/geoliv/

6 comments to After Watching the Final Segment of PBS’s Vietnam War Documentary

  • Angela  says:

    I laid on the couch last night after it was over, just staring at the ceiling for a very very long time.
    My quiet house could not absorb the noise in my head and my heart.

    • Andrew Hidas  says:

      You’ve captured my pretty much identical experience here, Angela. Thank you.

  • Dennis Ahern  says:

    It’s easy to imagine in these present tumultuous times that the world is on The Eve of Destruction. The country was much more divided then, it seems. The present madness barely holds a candle to those troubled times. Though we do well to always remain vigilant and engaged, it’s good to be reminded of the ebb and flow of history, informing us that this too shall pass.

    • Andrew Hidas  says:

      So good to hear from you, Dennis; I have missed your voice here.

      Yes, it is easy to forget how bitter the divide was through that era. I think that despite following it quite closely at the time, I was also very young, going about my life of school and basketball and girls and not quite grasping, lacking the historical perspective as I did, just how grave the situation was. This is but part of the great value of remembering as Ken Burns, et al, help us to do.

  • David Jolly  says:

    Andrew, I know you are going for a bigger picture here, but just thinking about the American presidents who took us in and out of Viet Nam, I’d probably want a separate list to include:

    the Hubris
    the Arrogance
    the Blindness
    the Delusion
    the Egocentricity
    the Deception
    the Mendacity
    the Corruption
    the Shame

    • Andrew Hidas  says:

      Indeed, David, so noted, thanks for this!

      So in one sweeping inclusive word: the “Humanity.”

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