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Misplaced aid?
Let me get this straight. There was a disaster halfway around the world, we want to help these people by sending tons of food and other kinds of aid, and the leaders of that country don't want it. At least 62,000 people now are feared dead in that region after a violent cyclone (they're called hurricanes in this hemisphere) rampaged the impoverished coastal country. The United States was on the ball in dispatching aid, in the form of food, medicine and other necessities, but the Asian country's ruling junta is standing in the way. In some cases the dictatorship is taking the aid for its own purposes, according to the United Nations. So what's a country to do? Someone is in need, we make the extra effort to give, and we're even willing to deliver the help. Sounds like the right thing to do. Yet they don't want our help. Maybe we're not getting the whole story. Maybe there are strings attached to the aid we offered. Think oil for food in Iraq, or the pledge to help poverty-stricken foe North Korea if they promise not to build nukes or share their secrets with our enemies. If this is the case in Myanmar, shame on them and us for putting politics ahead of human life. Now for the isolationist perspective on the Myanmar issue. Unless we're sending back some of the tainted food that U.S. companies bought from Asia then sold for human and animal consumption here, why are we sending tons of food to Asia? We have hungry people right here in this country. We have hungry people right here in Caldwell County. I'm sure the Soup Kitchen, Yokefellow or South Caldwell Christian Ministries would love to have some extra food donations. The Overlooked Generation? Much has been said in recent years about the rapid loss of World War II veterans. The aging population, often dubbed “The Greatest Generation,” is estimated to be dying at a rate of 1,000 per day. If not passed on and preserved, memories of the unprecedented sacrifice and service to country could be forever lost. In many ways it's already being lost on a couple generations of Americans who are too comfortable, too busy enjoying the material world and unaware of what real loss and sacrifice feels like. In the race to honor and remember the sacrifices of these great Americans, another generation of soldiers, I'm sorry to say, are being overlooked. Vietnam, though not nearly the monumental conflict (both in sheer combatant numbers and the loss of life) of WWII, remains a war that still is being fought today. But instead of fighting for their lives in the jungles of Southeast Asia, many of these veterans are fighting various forms of illness and disease that can be directly tied to tactics used in Vietnam. I began my reflection on this after my mom and I told my oldest child stories about two of her late uncles. Both died young, and both served their country in the Vietnam era. Though one's death was related, another's was directly linked to his exposure to Agent Orange while in combat. I met a man here in Lenoir a few weeks back, the same age as my uncle, who is struggling with the same fight. Though government studies do not make the correlation between what soldiers were exposed to in Vietnam (it claims that a 17-percent higher mortality rate is attributed to unintentional poisonings and drug-related causes) and their higher death rate, I can't help but wonder if a whole generation of American patriots are being overlooked. I've met too many Vietnam veterans experiencing serious health and mental issues not to wonder. Edward Terry Editor eterry@newstopic.net
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