Canthook

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh.
-- inaugural speech of Barack Hussein Obama

"I saw many signs in this campaign," Richard Nixon said, on the morning after he was elected president. "Some of them were not friendly, and some were very friendly. But the one that touched me the most," he claimed, "was the one in Deshler, Ohio.... A teenager held up a sign, 'Bring Us Together'. And that will be the great objective of this administration at the outset, to bring the American people together."

The New York Times sent someone to Deshler to find the girl, and he came back with a name, Vicky Lane, some quotes, and a picture of the sign. "When I asked Dick Moore where he had really seen that girl, or just imagined the sign that day," William Safire wrote in 2007, "his eyes took on a faraway look."

The thing was, I was there, and I didn't see the girl with the sign. And of the people I knew to attend that event, none of them saw her, either. Deshler is an awfully small town, population 1,800, and there were probably 4,000 people there, so it wouldn't have been hard for a teenaged girl to be swallowed up in the crowd, but I always thought it was fairly suspicious.

The official estimate was that there were 9,000 or 10,000 people present. You want to make your own estimate? Mentally mark off a square - I make it about 5 yards on a side - and count the number of people in that square. Then figure out how many squares of people you have. The crowd gets less dense towards the outside, so some of those squares, you count as half-squares. Official estimates of any crowd are always too high, but it's especially exaggerated at religious and political events.

Whether Nixon saw a sign or not, "Bring Us Together" because a minor theme of the 1968 campaign. On Halloween, at Madison Square Garden, Nixon referred to the sign as saying "Bring Us Together Again". No matter. My point is, he made the promise, and the closest he came to delivering on the promise was when we applauded his resignation.

In 2000, George Bush campaigned, saying he was "a uniter, not a divider" and once again, the closest he came to delivering on the promise was when we voted Obama president. The last time a candidate got such a large percentage of the popular vote without previously being President or Vice-President, it was Ike Eisenhower, who both parties had tried to nominate as their candidate.

The talking heads on the news channels, they like to talk about how this is a historical event for blacks, but I haven't heard them mention VietNam. Slick Willie managed to be in England when the draft board wanted him, and Dubya joined the Air National Guard in order to avoid going to VietNam, and then went AWOL. Earlier Presidents were too old to serve in VietNam, and Barack was too young.

But nothing goes into an inaugural speech by accident. It's carefully planned. And this is the first time, the very first time, that a President has recognized Vietnam veterans as on a par with veterans of the Revolution, of the Civil War, and of World War II.

There are lots of people who talk about returning vets being called "baby killers" in airports, or being water-ballooned with urine, but I've never talked with vets that claim that happened to them. I do remember sitting in bars, overhearing Vietnam vets talking to each other, about the fact that the American Legion and the VFW wouldn't allow them to join, because Vietnam wasn't a declared war.

They're right. It wasn't declared. But that's not the vet's fault. That's like refusing to allow a bastard to join your club, although it wasn't his fault that his parents didn't marry. And if someone was opposing the war, their disrespect might be forgiven. What excuse is there from the Legion and the VFW, who are supposed to honor those who put themselves in harm's way, for our benefit?

In many ways, this presidential election was about the VietNam war. Senator McCain served his country, and was asking, on behalf of his fellow soldiers, for the respect that VietNam veterans have so long been denied.

And in his inaugural speech, Obama granted that respect.

Thank you, sir. I have some friends who have been pushing up daisies for nearly four decades, who deserve that respect, and while I opposed the war in VietNam with every ounce of my strength, I appreciate what you've done to honor their sacrifice.

And Senator McCain? Mr. Obama just declared victory. You won. You can come home now.

We can all come home now. Together.
Other Bloggers On Related Topics:
Barack Obama - Bring Us Together - Deshler, Ohio - John McCain - Khe Sahn - Richard M Nixon - Vietnam