POST-1 (week six)

When approaching my opinions of the Vietnam war/era I am blind to the dynamics and contraversies about this war. To be honest, I am ignorant to that war or any war but the current war which even then I would hardly consider myself up to par on. Who do I blame this on? Well, I blame it on three things, 1) the media, 2) my history teachers in the past and 3) my own ignorance and general lack of motivation to educate myself on the issues. I have my opinions on war itself and sure I would like to know more. It although, is hard to gain knowledge or have the drive to gain knowledge about Vietnam when past teachers played it off as "We don't have time", or didn't even cover, much less, touch the subject. My history classes consisted of eating candy and playing on myspace while the teacher left the class for extended periods of time to "run copies" or "make important phone calls". I do although, have a general opinion of war. I think it is a necessary evil that is unavoidable. I believe that for as long as there are human beings there will be war. The truth of the situation is that two people can look at the same concept or standard and see it differently. So as long as there are individuals with seperate opinions there will be war. War on a global scale isn't surprising considering there is war in our own countries, war in our neighborhoods, wars between races and wars in our living rooms. Sure, in an ideal world there would be peace and everyone could coexist naturally but the painful reality is that at times war sparks change and leads to peace between nations. War, depending on the context, helps us to coexist globally. War has been a part of the world from the beginning of time. The bottom line is there is no correct answer. War is good and bad. Peace is good and bad. It is all relative to the places, people in those places and the ideals they uphold. It's a toss. As for how I came about looking through war through this particualr open window, I was raised by parents who lived through this war and other wars, who had parents and grandparents fight in this war and were general "hippies", on the flip side I was born in a generation that generally supports the war and a nation that believes it can justify any such type of war. I was raised to see things from two seperate perspectives and evaluate them as a whole not on seperate terms. We are a nation of people who can justify hate by love and love by hate. The lines are blurred and our education system is weak. Our leaders at times are corrupt and we tend to take everything at face value. I believe that to take a specific war and try to break it down to form a solid unbiased opinion would be difficult. I wasn't there, I am not there in the current war now. All I know is what I hear, read and see for myself. So, my justification is to look at both sides and take them both for what they are. I have nothing in concrete, if that makes me fickle, fine, so be it. We are raised to believe that everything has a right or wrong answer, a yes or a no, a black or white. The flaw with this type of teaching is that the world, the mind, and the body function in grey. That's the not so simple simple truth.

-The image included represents my overall feelings of war in general. War is found with peace and peace is found with war. They both create mankind in an individual unique way. Is is right or wrong, who is to say? I believe the world works in opposites. Either way you look at it, it's a state of the individuals minds. As a whole we will never agree but it will always be there. Below is a web site that gives a brief breakdown of the Vietnam war and posts the consequences of the war. In this you find a yin and yang, good and bad, peace and anti-peace if you will. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/vietnam/index.cfm