Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/07/12

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Where We Post From
From: "Douglas Landrum" <dflandrum@earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 21:17:25 -0700
References: <200107110608.CAA16418@newman.concentric.net>

George:
I think that the wise man spoke well.  As a man who was of military age
during Vietnam, I remember the times well.  I was raised in a patriotic
family.  My Dad was a veteran of WWII.  He saw combat and was blown apart by
a mine after the war, during the occupation.  When I reached military age,
the draft of young men who were not volunteers for military service was in
full swing.  At first, I enjoyed a college deferment from the draft.  I
attended a university where ROTC was required for two years.  I went to
college because a higher education was expected of me, not to avoid the
draft.  I was subjected to the elimination of college deferments from the
draft in my second year and exposed to the first lottery of those selected
to go first.  I elected instead to join up for the final two years of ROTC
(Reserve Officer Training Corps) - that meant that I would go to Vietnam as
an officer instead of an enlisted soldier.  I enrolled in law school after
graduation from college and commissioning as an officer in the US Army.
Continuing in school deferred my active duty.  That was my way of avoiding
the debacle of Vietnam.  I served as an officer in the US Army for three
years after the Vietnam War, delaying my career in the private sector.  I
bear no malice to those that found other ways to avoid service in Vietnam.
I honor and respect those that served our country in Vietnam and I regret
that I lacked the courage to volunteer and serve with them.  I grieve and
honor our men and women who fell in Vietnam.  I thank their families.  I now
have a son reaching military age.  I don't see that our government is as
deceitful as the Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon times.  I will regretfully send my
son to war if he is called to serve our country and the cause of freedom.
Don't let the nations of darkness underestimate our resolve - we Americans
will do our duty to defend our hard won freedom.  I will do as much as I can
for my part as a aging man to temper passions for war, yet resolve to resist
aggressors and oppressors.
Doug

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "George Lottermoser" <imagist@concentric.net>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 11:08 PM
Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Where We Post From


> msmall@roanoke.infi.net (Marc James Small)7/10/0110:52 PM
>
> > moral integrity
>
> Moral integrity is about wholeness of one's self. Not whether one
> is for or against going off to war and all of its ramifications.
>
> A wise man said, "It is regrettable that weapons must sometimes
> be used, but occasionally, survival demands it. The wise go forth
> with weapons only as a last resort. They never rejoice in the
> skill of weapons, nor do they glorify war.
>     When death, pain, and destruction are visited upon what you
> hold to be most sacred, the spiritual price is devastating. What
> hurts more than one's own suffering is bearing witness to the
> suffering of others. The regret of seeing human beings at their
> worst and the sheer pain of not being able to help the victims
> can never be redeemed. If you go personally to war, you cross the
> line yourself. You sacrifice ideals for survival and the fury of
> killing. That alters you forever. That is why no one rushes to be
> a veteran. Think before you want to change so unalterably. The
> stakes are not merely one's life, but one's very humanity."
>
> I say, honor each man for his choices in hard times; those who
> went and those didn't. We have no right to judge or shame a man
> whom we've not shared some long and serious time with.
>
> George
>
>

In reply to: Message from George Lottermoser <imagist@concentric.net> (Re: [Leica] Re: Where We Post From)