Once inside, the memorial is rather underwhelming. Certainly nothing like the one in Washington. There are about 50 or so people milling about so I scope out the situation and find a bench that isn't too wet to sit on as it's been raining on and off all day.
I'm excited as Chris Hedges, Margaret Flowers, Glen Ford and Kevin Zeese as well as Vietnam, Iraq and Afghan veterans are scheduled to speak.
I strike up a conversation with a woman who sits on the bench next to me. Turns out she's a Vet but luckily got out in the 90's and now travels around the world teaching organic farming. She just finished walking the Appalachian Trail and is headed to Florida the next day as the cold is not to her liking. Can't say as I blame her but Florida?
I no longer celebrate the Fourth of July or Columbus Day. I do not wave the flag of hatred and racism our flag has come to symbolize but I'm not the only one.
Combat veteran and poet Jenny Pacanowski steps to the microphone and waves her arms in the air. "I'm a female combat veteran. Take a good look cause you've probably never seen one." Jenny explains she rehabilitated herself through art. She then reads her powerful poem about Veterans suicides, "Parade." Here's a section from the poem.
The
funeral procession from Syracuse airport to Ithaca NY was over 50 miles long.
Dragging
his dead body through town after town of people, families and children waving
flags.
The
fallen HERO had finally come home.
I
wonder how many children who saw this, will someday want to be dead HEROS too.
I did
not wave a flag that day or any day since my return.
I live
in a dream called my life. Where the good things don't seem real or
sustainable.
I live
in the nightmares of the past called Iraq and PTSD that never run out of fuel.
Is it
better to be dead hero?
Or a living f..... up, addicted, crazy veteran?"
Chris Hedges, a hero of mine, a rare man of integrity, intellect, empathy and honor reads from his piece, "The Maimed." And irony of irony when Hedges speaks, as if on cue, a large fireworks display begins in the distance. It sounds like bombs bursting in air and because he's been in so many conflicts, he doesn't even flinch, he just calmly reads.
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