The column item below instantly came to mind, not because I think I was wrong — I don't think I was — but because of the blowback. Hundreds of outraged emails — so much that I felt the need to walk it back.
I regret it because the point I was making — nix the black flags — wasn't worth jamming my arm into a hornets' nest the way I did.
I remember being truly horrified by the reaction — I was 20 years younger — and felt the need to pour oil on the waters, which I did in an item I'll tag after the original post. It was back when the column filled a page, so these are just two brief squibs that ran a week apart. Eric says he'll address this in his blog Thursday.
Opening shot
When can we get rid of those black POW/MIA flags that have been flying under the American flag for the past 30 years? Or are we stuck with them forever? I'm all for honoring vets, but the black flag has always had negative overtones, having originated in Rambo paranoia centered around the belief that American prisoners were still in Vietnam years after the war ended and the government was for some reason concealing the fact. The flags, in addition to honoring sacrifice, also suggest, unfairly, something shameful about the country, or at least they did. Now vets say they are just a generic tribute to all the prisoners of war and missing in action. Perhaps. But there are better ways to honor U.S. service personnel. The flags will probably disappear one by one, as those who care passionately about them move on. A good thing, too.
— Originally published in the Sun-Times, Feb. 4, 2004
Collateral damage
It has been a disturbing week, for me. In fact, in my 20 years of newspapering in Chicago, I can't recall anything more disturbing. Last week, I wrote about the black POW/MIA flag. I thought I was directing my fire at a slur against the government. But whatever I thought I was shooting at, I ended up hitting a lot of proud soldiers and grieving relatives, and I'm sorry for that.
I got 500, maybe 1,000 e-mails — I lost count. Many took my opinion — those flags seem to say something negative — and twisted it into the most extreme, treacherous, anti-vet attitude they could imagine, a blanket damnation of history, heroism and the country itself. Their replies couldn't have been stronger had I suggested we dig up Arlington Cemetery and build a theme park. Full-bore outrage mixed with the harshest personal attack. Lots of name-calling. Lots of out-of-the-blue anti-Semitism. More death threats than the typical column generates.
Which puzzled me. Because, if I came across someone who I thought was completely wrong about something, and I wanted them to understand why they are wrong, I don't think I would begin my argument by telling them what a loathsome moron they are and how I'm going to kill them.
But that is a logical argument, and as I read through the responses — and I must have read hundreds — I quickly understood that this is not an area of cool logic, but of hot passion, of raw, hard emotion, built up through loss and suffering and acts of heroism met by a shrugging public, a shrugging public that I had volunteered to become the poster boy for. My opinion was a stick I had shoved into an open wound.
That's what bothered me most of all. It wasn't being called names — I get called names every day. I am a Jew, so the intended insult doesn't sting. It was who was doing the calling and why they were flinging those terms. Being accused by vets of being anti-vet hurt because I'm not ignorant of history — though I did not realize that the black flag isn't a relic, but means something vital to all sorts of people today, people who don't think that the government is a spider's nest of treachery.
I'm not the guy those vets were attacking. I'm the guy who trots his kids onto the front porch on Veterans Day and has them say the pledge with their hands over their hearts and then tells them about how the Rangers went up those cliffs at Normandy into the teeth of the Nazi machine guns, and that's why we get to loaf around all day.
For those who managed to write civilly, despite their feelings, thank you, it was an education. And for those who heard a twig snap and began firing into the darkness of cyberspace, you may not know it and certainly won't accept it, but you hit a friend.
— Originally published in the Sun-Times, Feb. 4, 2004
Collateral damage
It has been a disturbing week, for me. In fact, in my 20 years of newspapering in Chicago, I can't recall anything more disturbing. Last week, I wrote about the black POW/MIA flag. I thought I was directing my fire at a slur against the government. But whatever I thought I was shooting at, I ended up hitting a lot of proud soldiers and grieving relatives, and I'm sorry for that.
I got 500, maybe 1,000 e-mails — I lost count. Many took my opinion — those flags seem to say something negative — and twisted it into the most extreme, treacherous, anti-vet attitude they could imagine, a blanket damnation of history, heroism and the country itself. Their replies couldn't have been stronger had I suggested we dig up Arlington Cemetery and build a theme park. Full-bore outrage mixed with the harshest personal attack. Lots of name-calling. Lots of out-of-the-blue anti-Semitism. More death threats than the typical column generates.
Which puzzled me. Because, if I came across someone who I thought was completely wrong about something, and I wanted them to understand why they are wrong, I don't think I would begin my argument by telling them what a loathsome moron they are and how I'm going to kill them.
But that is a logical argument, and as I read through the responses — and I must have read hundreds — I quickly understood that this is not an area of cool logic, but of hot passion, of raw, hard emotion, built up through loss and suffering and acts of heroism met by a shrugging public, a shrugging public that I had volunteered to become the poster boy for. My opinion was a stick I had shoved into an open wound.
That's what bothered me most of all. It wasn't being called names — I get called names every day. I am a Jew, so the intended insult doesn't sting. It was who was doing the calling and why they were flinging those terms. Being accused by vets of being anti-vet hurt because I'm not ignorant of history — though I did not realize that the black flag isn't a relic, but means something vital to all sorts of people today, people who don't think that the government is a spider's nest of treachery.
I'm not the guy those vets were attacking. I'm the guy who trots his kids onto the front porch on Veterans Day and has them say the pledge with their hands over their hearts and then tells them about how the Rangers went up those cliffs at Normandy into the teeth of the Nazi machine guns, and that's why we get to loaf around all day.
For those who managed to write civilly, despite their feelings, thank you, it was an education. And for those who heard a twig snap and began firing into the darkness of cyberspace, you may not know it and certainly won't accept it, but you hit a friend.
—Originally published in the Sun-Times, Feb. 11, 2004
I too think those flags are bizarre & unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteI don't see them honoring anyone anymore, just reminding us of a weird obsession that hit this country that, like you wrote, there were POWs still in captivity, long after the end of the war.
And to pre-empt anyone saying it's about any ex-military held in a Russian prison, the US Government tries very hard to get them out of there, it was the Russians who decided who they would trade & we had to go along with it.
I would suggest you have nothing to "walk back" in this instance. Revisionism regarding U.S. involvement in the Viet Nam conflict is how a large segment of the senior population manages to cope and justify the adventure. I'm old, too. I remember those years in a VERY different way. Of course we can't talk about it too loudly. Especially not around the golf course with old men in store bought Viet Nam Vet baseball caps standing anywhere in earshot. Heaven forbid we should have an opinion on anything.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, the emailers are wrong, that flag DOES have sinister, conspiracy-theory associations.
ReplyDeleteWe LOST Viet Nam (which was never ours to take), there are NO prisoners left there, get the fuck over it.
I'm a Vietnam era vet, my brother served there and my cousin came home in a casket. I realize that the war was pointless, awful and probably illegal. And we certainly did lose there. The many thousands of people killed from every nation that took part, whether armed forces or civilian are to be mourned forever. NS shouldn't have taken hits for his writing on the POW flag and I'm sorry he did. No living prisoners were left behind, and the idea that there were was wishful/hopeful thinking by grieving people suffering trauma.
DeleteThat said, if the "it" in "get the fuck over it" means the war, I and anyone else from anywhere who lost a friend or family member will never get over it. But thanks for the kind words.
I remember enjoying your original column and agreeing 100% with it. Those flags have always annoyed me too. I had forgotten about, or was never aware of, the backlash. Sorry you had to go through that. Those people sound mostly ignorant.
ReplyDeleteJohn McCain once got into it with a bunch of relatives of missing Vietvets who kept insisting to him that their loved ones were still alive and being held in North Vietnam by cruel captors, just like in Rambo. He finally snapped back at them that it was all nonsense. For obvious reasons, he was the major politician best situated to do that from a historical/moral standpoint.
Why are human beings so mean spirited and personally attacking when they don’t agree with a point of view? I never realized until becoming a member of your EGD community with unwavering admiration, respect and appreciation for how you think and write, how brave and courageous you have to be in your profession.
ReplyDeleteDitto Dianne
DeleteSymbols are so tricky. They can mean so many different nuanced things to so many different people. The context of their display is everything, and maybe it's better to address the intended meaning, not the symbol. I've seen these POW flags on pickup trucks with Trump paraphernalia and they come across like ISIS flags, with the white-on-black, just as intimidating. But on a government building they look benign, rightly calling attention to sacrifice and suffering of service personnel, with Iraq and Afghanistan not so far in the past.
ReplyDeleteWhen POWs were released at the end of the Vietnam war they brought back some horrific stories. Some asked about comrades that they had been held with and couldn't get answers about what had become of them. From our government and certainly not from the north Vietnamese . There was a movement to hold our government officials accountable for these missing soldiers , some who had last been seen alive. Men who had not been killed in action and whose remains had not been repatriated.
ReplyDeleteVietnam vets and vets from previous wars along with patriotic American citizens demanded accountability from our government for their comrades. The black flag was the banner beneath which these folks rallied.
Eventually the US brought pressure upon the Vietnamese to effort the return of these individuals. This was not a priority for a country rebuilding from a savage conflict. I do not remember any American soldier being returned after the war but many remains were returned and US personnel were allowed to enter vietnam to search.
The POW/ MIA movement has carried its work into every war since and continues to seek to enforce a policy of no one left behind. Something taken very seriously by our military. Its something all soldiers should be able to count on.
Yes their have been some extremists who have put forth some unsubstantiated claims over the years . This may be part of the dehumanizing of our advisories that goes on in every conflict where we. imagine the opposing forces to be savages incapable of following the "rules of war" . That should not be used to tarnish the honorable people of the black flack movement.
I'll join the chorus and say I don't like that flag, either.
ReplyDeleteIt has nothing to do with patriotism. I'm as patriotic as the next guy.
I'm a military veteran and work at a VA hospital where it flies daily.
But I still don't like that flag.
Going on 50 years since the final days of the Vietnam War, or 20 years longer than WWII had been over when it finally ended. There are no longer any POWs still in captivity, and all the missing humans have long since become humus on the jungle floor, in places where no one ever treads and probably never will.
ReplyDeleteSo when does this flag finally become history, and finally become relegated to military museums and historical display cases, alongside the flags of those other causes whose day in the sun has passed...the Confederate battle flag and the swastika?
I watched the congressional hearings that were held to try to determine whether there were US POWs still being held overseas decades after hostilities had ceased. There was not one shred of evidence presented to make that case and then-Senator John Kerry, who should know better than anyone, was one of the leaders of that committee.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand I feel that it is more than appropriate to more suitably find a way to honor and remind all of us of the many missing whose remains have been swallowed up by time and will never be returned to their families. But to combine the missing with non-existent POWs on that flag is absurd.