Tag: My Lai Massacre

Sudden sadness

In the news today, we read about stock market ups and downs, a VP pick and the need to floss often (TIME). Then, though rarely, I clicked on Google News, Vietnam-related items, among which, this.

https://thebrunswicknews.com/news/local_news/column-perspective-the-death-of-the-best-known-vietnam-veteran/article_55a8efa2-533a-11ef-b514-d751e9f45001.html

It was about My Lai, and the atrocity that took place there. I guess at the time, “Mad Dog” and cohorts all thought alike. Peter Arnett – after the Fall of Saigon recalled a comment: ” gooks killing gooks don’t make the news” (here in the US) as News Bureau wouldn’t send him back to cover the war aftermath.

Last night, I watched “The Apostle” ( been a Robert Duvall fan since Lonesome Dove and the Godfather). Set in Louisiana, the “church” he helped found was almost razed by the KKK (even when he himself, a White fugitive minister from Ft Worth) had not for his quick thinking i.e. laying an opened Bible as barrier – not bridge- to stop the bulldozer. God’s mercy versus man’s justice.

Prejudice runs deep, in the South, in the North, inside each of us. Can’t get around it.

The impetus and propensity to knee-jerk think, verbalize or act out what’s in our vein. Waste ‘ m.

Bayonets, burning bright or atomic solutions. Just drop ‘m. Once upon a time in the West, then the Rest. “Clean” Eastwood. Lone rider into the sunset with a fistful of dollars in the over-the-shoulder-leather pouch.

The music, the scenery and the galloping. Free and clear. No hard labor. No conviction.

I also read about South Korean atrocities during the Korean and Vietnam war. That’s on top of the rape of Nanking. And Hue in 1968, later on in Khmer Rouge Cambodia ( Museum in the Mekong at Ba Chuc as shown here).

Skulls, skulls, skulls. The dead don’t lie. There is no need to. No further gain by being dead.

For a choice (between being dead and being there), I’d rather being Chance (the main character in Being There), tending and watching flowers bloom and die in the garden = their graveyard.

So much bloodshed. So much lies and cover ups. Today’s platform (social media and You tube) gives rise to unchecked opinion-served-up-as-facts.

Keep your head. Differentiate between snake oil and baby oil, sales and spin.

The dead can still be useful in reminding us – the living – that atrocities are still happening on a daily basis, in the name of this and that, with deniability..

Mad Dog or Mad Max. It’s all killing on an industrial scale. In today’s environment, they kill your reputation with disinformation, cyber bully your kids (in their own room at home) and we cannot do anything. Of late, Google was found guilty of monopolizing Search while its 1st employee, the garage owner who rented out to the two Stanford grad founders, died yesterday.

If we Searched at all. Those like the author of The Rape of Nanking, after search and re-searching for her book, committed suicide. I would, if I re-lived and empathized with the victims;, haven’t we had enough of bitter taste in the mouth (in NYC, they shot J Lennon, took down the Twin Towers and deceived millions of their saving; just yesterday).

Please tell me that grass don’t grow back in Hue, in My Lai and Nanking (stocks bounced back today).

There is still hope. Only if they researched and not repeated the same mistakes.

Lots of folks like Chuck Colson and Duvall’s fictional “Apostle” tried to re-invent their lives. Only to get caught in time, by the long arms of justice. It’s good to know, rarely but surely, that life always has its gives and takes. And those who play God, oh well, please act it all out. First thing first. Death comes before the Resurrection.

In the news today, there was commentary about My Lai, news about the Minnesota Governor and the need for frequent flossing. It’s helpful and relevant. Except for the first item brought sudden sadness; as I remember watching black-and-white newsreel about Hue (and not a lot about My Lai).

Fast forward to today, atrocities on both sides were set aside as evident in the Philippines and Vietnam joint exercise at sea to protect their bases against China aggression. Time heals all wounds. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. The dead were buried, except for the museum of skulls to remind us history can still repeat itself ( then more skulls will join its extension wing).

Sadness is our default state, while with happiness, you need to seek, embrace and nurture it.

Sudden sadness.

Personality as motivator

Besides fun, fear and need for recognition, each of us is motivated by an unique set of triggers.

Some are expressive e.g. talk it out to then realize what they think.

Analytical people, however, weigh the pros and cons before opening their mouths.

Amiable people just empathize, feely-touchy and are good listeners

Social folks love to smok’em at barbecue parties: the more the merrier.

Finally, the quickest of all are the Alpha-Male types: shoot first aim later.

Most managers have been managed by other managers, who in turn, pass down the command-control model.

Just Do It!

And they are right half of the time.

When workers left their company, nobody bothered to do a post-mortem.

It’s like a death in the family. To be politically correct, nobody should mention the “others” who are no longer “us”.

Write if off on the left column, as burnt rate, from attrition.

Even in warfare, military historians take years of reflection and review to extract “lessons learned”.

Companies cannot afford this. Just hire new staff. Invest in new head counts.

The (vicious) cycle starts again. One motivational model imposed on various types off workers.

My way or highway.

The best middle manager is the one who can negotiate and walk the fine line between corporate interests and line workers/market expectations, between Wall Street and Main Street.

The best leaders are ones who can detect conflicting signals sent up and down the chain. Without the people carrying out strategies and tactics, things don’t move. But to move so fast in the wrong direction is much worse. (see Matterhorn or My Lai Massacre).

It boils down to attitude, aim and action. Recent article in the NYT shows that people who adjust their course mid-stream (after examining underlining assumptions)  can pivot to success. It’s not difficult to apply the right mix of motivators. But first, one needs to be self-motivated and undergo self-examination (ego? pride? face-saving?).

And this process is hard. Look yourself in the mirror, know all the weaknesses  and seek redemption. That’s when things start to turn. There is no coach that will yell at you. Just an empty locker room at half-time. Helmets off. Sweat and tears. The score board doesn’t lie. We are all behind, to face imminent loss. And worst of, loss of self-confidence. Seek the right mix of motivators for your team, yourself and your families. Tough-love yourself.

Mobile books

I was waiting for my scooter ride outside Cho Ray Hospital when a peddler approached me. “Want to pick something to read?”. Turned out, she was selling used books, in a box: Cu Chi Tunnel, My Lai Massacre, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, Sorrows of War, Understanding Vietnam…

Those subjects are now as old as the war itself. All healed and pealed, just scars.

When I was in high school, I went up the gang-plank to tour the Logos ship.

This ship carried books and Bibles across the ocean to far-away lands (of heathen). Later, to reciprocate, I volunteered one summer aboard the Doulos (Logos 2.0) ship to W  Africa.  I saw the longing for a better life in those dark eyes. The instant bonding of men in different skin colors. And the no-way-out trajectory of Liberia in the mid-80’s.

Mobile books.

But not up-ward mobile lives.

Now, we have e-books and e-learning.

Open U and open source. I wonder how many of us are taking advantage of free access to advance ourselves.

I wonder how many sales the peddler made yesterday outside the hospital?

I wonder how many patients bought and read about Man’s Fate .

I read so I won’t be alone.

I am reading “Love and Garbage”.

And I appreciate your reading this, so you and I are not alone.

Love, death and garbage will always be with us. It’s an unmovable law. The consolation is, we are not alone in this. Want to pick something to read?