Song My, by TR

[Tragic Rabbit]

Song My 1968

I sing my song,

soft and dreadful song

my song, my song, Song My

O, hear her pain

drums within my heart

my song, sad song, Song My

in truth, My Lai

met Company C

and Death raised his baton

My Lai, her lie

finally came to light

all heard her symphony

Song My, My Lai

bodies soaked in blood

five hundreds left to lie

left to slowly die

sad song, My Lai

sing loud, My Lai

sing inside my soul

chant innocents shot down

My Lai, her truth

must not silent be

must chorus down through time

soft hum, a hymn

paean for the dead

sing her sad song, Song My

no lie, the truth

it was babies, too

never forget Song My

*

[dude]

How quickly we forget...

I remember back to when My Lai hit the media... we (the American people) were appalled. But then it wasn't a war against Buddhism. Buddhists weren't thought to be the enemy. A young officer - Lt. James Calley - bit the bullet.

Now under the current Gods Own Party leadership... similar stuff happens in Afghanistan and Iraq with even incursions into Pakistan. With Fox and CNN the current media leaders jostling for viewership and each trying to grabmore conservative viewers... the criticism -and coverage- is muted. Enlisted people are blamed this time.

Political observation ended... thanks for this poem, TR. You're attention to recent history earns you the prose and poetry title of AwesomeHistorian.

[Tragic Rabbit]

Now under the current Gods Own Party leadership... similar stuff happens in Afghanistan and Iraq with even incursions into Pakistan.  With Fox and CNN the current media leaders jostling for viewership and each trying to grab more conservative viewers... the criticism -and coverage- is muted.  

Well, I think that's exactly it, the federal government learned its lesson from Vietnam and Watergate and now manages to prevent critique...as well as full and honest coverage. Anything uncomplimentary to the administration is nixed...long before it hits API, TV news, net news sources, etc.

I mean, contrast the situation with Fox News' White House stamp of approval against the hero-worship accorded (mid-1970s) The New York Times for breaking that scandal, for speaking out against the then current administration. Contrast CNN's war coverage with the news coverage, even by Army journalists and photographers, of Vietnam from '68 onward.

And so, then what happened?

For the first and only time, a President had to apologize, face impeachment and actually resign his elected office to avoid prosecution. For the first time and only time, public opinion forced a country OUT of a (undeclared) war.

I think steps are taken in all quarters to ensure that public opinion never again be influenced by the facts of any administration's decisions, wars and scandals. Bread and circuses, American Idol, celebrity scandals and an iron fist around the neck of impartial journalism keep us placated, quiescent, numbed to the 'news'.

What a great country we have...or could, if we let it be one. Repressive government, wiretapping citizens, curtailment of civil liberties...isn't that what we were told, while growing up, made other countries inferior to America?

I guess, as in Orwell's 1984, history is fluid, depending upon who is doing the remembering...and why.

Political observation ended... thanks for this poem, TR.  You're attention to recent history earns you the prose and poetry title of AwesomeHistorian.

Thanks, O Awesome One! I do think certain times are pivotal in our history, WWII obviously (I assume obviously). Just lately, I've been focusing some on 1968-69. Events of those years shaped our society for decades, and we still bear the marks.

To know ourselves, our times and understand events as they unfold, we must know our history. Surely, knowing something of our recent history, meaning the 20th century, isn't asking too much?

:sad11:

TR