MY HEART FEELS HEAVY

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MY HEART FEELS HEAVY

by Luis Zamora • Brandon, Florida USA • October 14, 2004

Please write comments and thanks to: ZLUIS4

 

 

ABC: SIX O CLOCK NATIONAL . NEWS. OCTOBER 14, 2004.

 

 

While watching the news, I could hardly believe what I was seeing and

hearing. A young black man who lost his arms in Iraq was living in a

car on the street with nowhere to go. To add to the misery, the Army

wanted to collect $2,700 from him he had received as a re-enlistment

bonus. But because of losing his limbs, he obviously was unable to

complete his term of enlistment. Now the Army demands that he repay

the money and has distributed documentation to creditors ruining his

credit nation-wide.

 

In another case, a young man returned home but unfortunately was

unable to keep his old job because he had lost both arms. He was

having a hell of a hard time supporting his family. One could see the

anguish in his face. The misery of knowing he had sacrificed his life

for a rich man's war is enough, but then to add insult to injury is

enough to push one over the edge.

 

As a veteran with forty percent disability (40%) and having dealt with

the VA tooth and nail for thirty some odd years, I know what they will

be going through. It will be pure hell.

 

Our " expendable " youth are sent to the slaughter -- with flags waving

and the band playing. They are being sacrificed on the altar of pure

greed and lies -- nothing else. It was drilled into their heads they

were going to a foreign land to protect our country's freedom. What a

rude awakening!

 

These brave young men and women will find a strange world when they

come back home: the flags will be folded and the bands will have

stopped playing. And if they are lucky over the course of many years,

in time they will put their lives back together. A few recover; others

face a certain fate.

 

Those who have the wounds in the shadows of the mind (unseen to the

naked eye) your suffering will be in silence. Some of you will join

the two-hundred and fifty-thousands (250,000 + or -) of homeless from

the Vietnam War, living on the streets. Yes, you will be the

forgotten. You are the ones that our government cannot use anymore.

 

And what about these who have paid the ultimate price for the mistakes

of this government?

 

" May God hold you in his loving hands, " is Bush's carefully crafted

recitation. But what can this administration truthfully say to the

families who lost their loved ones in such senseless war? I can't

find anything that can be said to console or resolve, can you?

Perhaps President Bush has something to say to them to justify the

loss of our youth's body-parts, futures, and existence. But I doubt

the man born of privilege who requires prompting from handlers

off-stage at every turn is programmed to adequately address victims of

his senseless war. Like a dictator, he forbids the viewing of

coffins; so why should we expect anything more? His life is nothing

but a show where the deception going on backstage is forever blocked

from view center-stage.

 

I am not a writer. At times like these I feel so inadequate trying to

portray what I sense down deep in my soul. But I can tell you: my

heart feels heavy, there is bursting anger, and the wounds I suffered

many years ago in Korea and Vietnam have again become raw. The

nightmare has resurfaced thanks to Bush; the relapse is almost more

than one can bear. In the shadows of my mind the fox holes of Korea

and the stinking jungles of 'Nam become alive again -- the nightmares

seem real only because the wars were real and I was there. Cold

sweats are felt in the darkness of night, and I know that our youth

today will have to endure the same as I -- 35 and 54 years later. It

makes one want to yell, " Damn this war -- Damn this war " -- over and

over again.

 

As I see it through the eyes of an old man.

 

Luis Zamora (Florida)

 

 

Luis Zamora is a combat veteran of Korea and Vietnam, now retired in

Florida. He writes often for American Voice ( AmeriVoice ) and other

Internet posting sites.