41st Anniversary

This morning was the annual anniversary commeration (March 16) at My Lai,(Son My). Since this was not a big year (41 yrs), the event was kind of low key with school children and a few vets in the audience. Party officials spoke and then different groups including us (Madison Quakers Inc) went forward to the large memorial, lit incense, bowed three times and placed incense sticks in an urn.One of the other groups who performed the ritual were the 4-5 survivors, survivors of the over 500 total killed at My Lai. Mike Boehm, head of Madison Quakers has established a tradition of playing the violin at the memorial. he dresses in a traditional (and hot) Vietnamese male dress and plays a haunting tune called the Farwell Waltz.So the event was short and very sweet and I was relieved that we did not have to listen to tons of speeches in Vietnamese. I was also grateful that Marge and Tinh and I had spent time at the museum and memorial last week when there were few people around and we could really meditate on the tragedy and loss.

From there we went over to the Tinh Khe school for another ceremony where Madison Quakers Inc handed over the funding for the building that was recently completed.The work feels important since Quang Ngai was one of the areas so devastated during the war.Marge said that the AFSC clinic has estimated one of every approximately 250 people had lost a limb.And most hamlets were burned or damaged. It seems like where ever we go, for whatever reason, we end up with some reminder of the war. I feel very aware that Americans are still so removed from the horror and damage of war that we experience it as abstract and theoretical. That keeps us from really confronting what we do to other people.