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I saw a man ...
May. 26th, 2004 09:20 pmOutside the post office in my ZIP code zone, a silver BMW parked beside my aging Chevy. Sitting in the driver's seat was a man roughly my father's age, around 50, with his hand over his face but crying loudly enough to be heard outside his closed doors and windows.
Gave me some pause. I unlocked my Chevy, set my purse inside after having bought stamps for my workplace, and turned back to lean over and tap on the passenger-side glass. He stabbed at the power window button, realized the car wasn't on, and appeared to swear to himself briefly before ticking the ignition over to the battery so he could roll down the window. "Are you all right?" I wondered.
I find myself doing that for some reason the past few months, when I see someone sitting somewhere crying. I don't want a part in people's grief, nor do I have a morbid curiosity to satisfy; I've gone more than 30 years not asking people about their private problems. I much prefer that, in fact. But there are occasions it looks as though someone might be in physical pain, and when the fellow is middle-aged ... well, you never know. It might be a medical thing and he needs to use my cell phone, maybe.
"No." He shook his head, his words muffled by not quite being able to stop crying. "There were a couple of women in there who were sending packages to their troops, and ..." Something muffled about them paying for the boxes, or not being able to pay; I couldn't tell. "I'm just having a Vietnam moment."
"Oh." I straightened up. "Well, I apologize for bothering you; I just thought you might not be feeling well, or some such thing." He nodded and I turned back to my car; by the time I've slid into the driver's seat, he's already raised the window closed and is back to crying, head bowed, hand over his face. He's a well-to-do Vietnam veteran, or the close relative or friend of someone who died in a war 30 years gone, and he still can't resist such a strong reaction at the mere reminder of current events hearkening to one of America's most colossal mistakes - all made by an administration desperate for offshore oil drilling privileges in a foreign land.
I invite anyone who still believes, after more than a year after fiasco upon fiasco, that this war is a good idea, to post here. I knew it was coming back in late 2000, when it was finally announced that Bush had been annointed President by the Supreme Court; I opposed it then, as I opposed the first attempted occupation of Iraq in 1991. I dreaded it was coming in early 2000 when Bush was announced the Republican candidate, for I had a feeling Gore would not win - it seems the American people cannot abide a man having his dick sucked in the Oval Office, but they can easily enough accept a (former?) substance abuser with the command of the world's deadliest armed forces at his fingertips abusing that privilege ad nauseam.
For every argument you can make that supports this cock-up of a decision, I can marshal at least two against it. The really horrid part is ... I'm not the only one. And I no longer feel in the minority, thank God.
Gave me some pause. I unlocked my Chevy, set my purse inside after having bought stamps for my workplace, and turned back to lean over and tap on the passenger-side glass. He stabbed at the power window button, realized the car wasn't on, and appeared to swear to himself briefly before ticking the ignition over to the battery so he could roll down the window. "Are you all right?" I wondered.
I find myself doing that for some reason the past few months, when I see someone sitting somewhere crying. I don't want a part in people's grief, nor do I have a morbid curiosity to satisfy; I've gone more than 30 years not asking people about their private problems. I much prefer that, in fact. But there are occasions it looks as though someone might be in physical pain, and when the fellow is middle-aged ... well, you never know. It might be a medical thing and he needs to use my cell phone, maybe.
"No." He shook his head, his words muffled by not quite being able to stop crying. "There were a couple of women in there who were sending packages to their troops, and ..." Something muffled about them paying for the boxes, or not being able to pay; I couldn't tell. "I'm just having a Vietnam moment."
"Oh." I straightened up. "Well, I apologize for bothering you; I just thought you might not be feeling well, or some such thing." He nodded and I turned back to my car; by the time I've slid into the driver's seat, he's already raised the window closed and is back to crying, head bowed, hand over his face. He's a well-to-do Vietnam veteran, or the close relative or friend of someone who died in a war 30 years gone, and he still can't resist such a strong reaction at the mere reminder of current events hearkening to one of America's most colossal mistakes - all made by an administration desperate for offshore oil drilling privileges in a foreign land.
I invite anyone who still believes, after more than a year after fiasco upon fiasco, that this war is a good idea, to post here. I knew it was coming back in late 2000, when it was finally announced that Bush had been annointed President by the Supreme Court; I opposed it then, as I opposed the first attempted occupation of Iraq in 1991. I dreaded it was coming in early 2000 when Bush was announced the Republican candidate, for I had a feeling Gore would not win - it seems the American people cannot abide a man having his dick sucked in the Oval Office, but they can easily enough accept a (former?) substance abuser with the command of the world's deadliest armed forces at his fingertips abusing that privilege ad nauseam.
For every argument you can make that supports this cock-up of a decision, I can marshal at least two against it. The really horrid part is ... I'm not the only one. And I no longer feel in the minority, thank God.
