Mr. Femmedem enlisted to be a pilot in Vietnam (a story about the speech)

[femmedem]

Mr. Femmedem learned to fly while he was in high school. He enlisted to fly in Vietnam. He was a very red white and blue gung ho eighteen year old who wanted to be a hero.

But shortly before he was going to ship out, he heard the officers laughing about the Gulf of Tonkin. "What?" he kept asking them. "It wasn't true? The Gulf of Tonkin wasn't true?" And that's how he learned our government conned him into risking his life with a lie.

Very shortly after that, he punched his CO, got booted out of the army, grew his hair long, went hitchhiking around the country, grew apart from his parents who were mortified that he didn't stay and fight...and his hair is still long and he is still so angry at this government. The sense of betrayal is still raw.

Mr. Femmedem and I knew the Iraq war was a lie. We marched in D.C. and NYC. We didn't expect it to do any good, and it didn't. Still, we were heartbroken that our government was at it again. Or still.

But today, watching Obama's speech, Mr. Femmedem was gobsmacked. He was drop-jawed. He was nearly in tears. Afterwards, he said, "That's the first time a politician ever told me the truth."

Edited for a typo.

[patrice]

1. I also liked the way he didn't let Congress off the hook, because he said

th.e war should not have been authorized nor started

[MadMaddie]

2. Thanks fo sharing.

[Catherina]

3. To Mr. Femmedem

:hug:

[femmedem]

4. Thanks, Catherina.

I will pass that along to him.

[Catherina]

15. Please, please do

I was in the military for a few years and know how we're used as pawns by both sides. Your post made me cry so please, please pass that on. Thanks. This one's for you :hug:

[femmedem]

16. Thanks again, Catherina.

And let me offer a belated welcome to DU. I've been enjoying your posts, not just on this thread.

[crispini]

5. damn!

Word!

[K Gardner]

6. Oh hell, here come the waterworks again. I'd hug Mr. Femmedem

if I could. :hug:

I think the tearing off of the scab, as done by a leader as great as Obama, is drawing catharsis all across this great nation and perhaps the world.

God Bless all the Mr. Femmedems.. and thank you for sharing this.

[boppers]

7. Refreshing, innit?

Obama just raised the bar for the next 30 years.

[C_U_L8R]

8. Gobsmacked

weren't we all. it was astounding and we were all there/here.

[femmedem]

9. I sure was.

I kept thinking he'd just said everything, and then he'd go further, and it just kept getting better.

[Forkboy]

10. It was the first time I've heard Obama and was moved.

As many here know, I'm not a big fan of either candidate (my father once said I'm further left than Abbie Hoffman, for perspective), but today, listening to that speech, I felt for the first time that I could vote for him, and do so gladly.

[Cha]

11. Thanks for your

sharing your husband's story with us, femmedem! So many people know the truth of our history and it's got to have effected them also.

[MagickMuffin]

12. Thank Mr. Femmedem for me, to punch a CO.... WOW

After hearing them laughing about the Gulf of Tonkin. THAT TOOK COURAGE:patriot:

Our government has been involved in a lot of questionable wars, at the bequest of the military industrial complex. :cry:

Senator Obama showed us today that he has the same kind of courage Mr. Femmedem showed back in the 70's.

I think our country should start talking about race with one another. I grew up in a household that thought it was alright to use racist slurs. I over came the bigotry and prejudices I was taught as a young child.

Below is part of a sermon MLK gave on Independence Day back in 1965.

"The American Dream." (Yes, sir)

It wouldn’t take us long to discover the substance of that dream. It is found in those majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, words lifted to cosmic proportions: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by God, Creator, with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." This is a dream. It’s a great dream.

The first saying we notice in this dream is an amazing universalism. It doesn’t say "some men," it says "all men." It doesn’t say "all white men," it says "all men," which includes black men. It does not say "all Gentiles," it says "all men," which includes Jews. It doesn’t say "all Protestants," it says "all men," which includes Catholics. (Yes, sir) It doesn’t even say "all theists and believers," it says "all men," which includes humanists and agnostics.

Then that dream goes on to say another thing that ultimately distinguishes our nation and our form of government from any totalitarian system in the world. It says that each of us has certain basic rights that are neither derived from or conferred by the state. In order to discover where they came from, it is necessary to move back behind the dim mist of eternity. They are God-given, gifts from His hands. Never before in the history of the world has a sociopolitical document expressed in such profound, eloquent, and unequivocal language the dignity and the worth of human personality. The American dream reminds us, and we should think about it anew on this Independence Day, that every man is an heir of the legacy of dignity and worth.

Now ever since the founding fathers of our nation dreamed this dream in all of its magnificence—to use a big word that the psychiatrists use—America has been something of a schizophrenic personality, tragically divided against herself. On the one hand we have proudly professed the great principles of democracy, but on the other hand we have sadly practiced the very opposite of those principles.

But now more than ever before, America is challenged to realize its dream, for the shape of the world today does not permit our nation the luxury of an anemic democracy. And the price that America must pay for the continued oppression of the Negro and other minority groups is the price of its own destruction. (Yes it is) For the hour is late. And the clock of destiny is ticking out. We must act now before it is too late.

And so it is marvelous and great that we do have a dream, that we have a nation with a dream; and to forever challenge us; to forever give us a sense of urgency; to forever stand in the midst of the "isness" of our terrible injustices; to remind us of the "oughtness" of our noble capacity for justice and love and brotherhood.


http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/sermons/650704_The_American_Dream.html

I urge everyone to finish reading this very moving sermon in its entirety.

[femmedem]

14. Thank you!

Although I think Mr. Femmedem would agree he didn't punch the CO out of courage so much as that it didn't take courage so much as rage so overwhelming that he forgot about consequences.

Dr. King's words are always a pleasure to read. His speech about Vietnam is my favorite.

[RichardRay]

13. Tell the Mr. Femmedem - **FTA**

From the Chicago Area Military Project - Send you soldier to CAMP.