SURVIVORS
Image size: 15" x 20"
Media: Woodcut
Edition:
Paper: Dutch Etching
Date: 1064c
Our own veterans from the Vietnam war can still be seen, ill, sleeping and begging on the streets of NYC, albeit Refugees in their own country. Why is this?
*Go to 'Denial and the Real Cost of the War' by Sylvia from over the Hill for current views and heartbreaking effects of war on our soldiers.
**A good read on the aftermath of war, particularly 1918, is Pat Barker's REGENERATION - War and Peace, of Mind. An important, novel of destruction and rebuilding of the human mind from the point of view of a pshycotherapist and the patient.
*** And not forgetting Virginia Woolf's take on the war in Mrs. Dalloway.
For some reason this one doesn't work quite so well for me. I think it's because 'Refugees' embodied a sense of urgency and movement, which I don't feel this subject requires. The situation of a down-and-out is sort of static and resigned, I feel, and I don't get that sense from this. But that's just me.
ReplyDelete"Why is this?" - I have no idea why that is the situation. I don't have a great understanding of the circumstances but I do believe that the Vietnam Vets have never received the respect and support they deserved. I think they've been let down very badly and that's so very sad.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Harriet, my husband was in Vietnam in the 60s and it was bad, but got so much worse for the veterans as the war went on and on!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Margaret, for the referral to my blog.