Ripping open old wounds

It seems the city of Fayetteville, North Carolina has angered local veteran citizens by proposing a “Sister City” program with a formerly-South Vietnam city according t the Associated Press.

“The symbolism is a powerful healing message. It really is this city and the people who live here willing to put something behind them that in some ways we’ve had trouble shaking,” Fayetteville Mayor Tony Chavonne said. “I don’t think there is a city in America that has a closer bond, good or bad, with that period of time in our history and that conflict.”

Symbolism. That’s what is most important here. Not the realities of citizens’ experience in war.

“It is just not over with them and it never was cleanly over,” said retired Col. Bill Richardson, an 80-year-old who said he served 14 months in Vietnam with the Special Forces. “I don’t think we ought to be dealing with them on a city-to-city thing. It just dredges up a lot of bad feelings.”

I just simply don’t see how, with a huge retired military community in Fayetteville, the mayor would consider sending a “healing message” to the communists and disregard the folks who fought that war for the country in which it’s possible for him to be a mayor. The article makes the same point we’ve heard a hundred times about Mayor Chavonne’s own military experience;

Chavonne was born in Fayetteville, a city considered synonymous with Fort Bragg. His family members served in Vietnam and his best friend’s father was killed there.

Somehow he understands how veterans feel because he knew or was related to someone who served, although, apparently he never has served. I get the distinct feeling that this is his last term in office.

Category: Politics