One of the great perks of my job is finding my way into situations that I would normally never experience. In an effort to keep things original, interesting and fresh for the readers of Columbia Gorge Magazine, I’m constantly reading everything I can get my eyes on and taking notes. You never know when a story will emerge or when you’ll stumble upon the perfect interview subject. Just a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to conduct an interview that has had me thinking—a lot—ever since. It’s rare, when you read all day everyday, write in your spare time and take great pride in knowing what’s going on in your community and beyond, that you stumble upon something you’ve overlooked or forgotten about.
A few Wednesday’s ago I had a chance to enter into a world that—because of my age and my life experience—I had never entered. I volunteered with the Gorge Heroes Club in their efforts to assemble, pack and ship care packages to soldiers from the Columbia Gorge that are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I read about the wars on a daily basis; I even like to think that I talk about them and think about them more than the “others” of my generation who’ve forgotten or turned away. How much of this is because of the amount of news I read for my job, and how much of it is my general curiosity about the field of battle, are two questions I don’t have the time and space to explore here, but something from that meeting has kept my mind reeling.
In the darkened, hanger-style warehouse of the Western Antique Aerospace and Automobile Museum I was met with the faces of several soldiers’ parents, spouses and family members. Those faces evoked stress. Their way of looking at you was a bit scattered at first, as if their minds were somewhere else, and who could blame them for that. What I saw that evening as we packed boxes, signed cards and socialized was a level of commitment and dedication from the home-front that I am yet to experience in any other place as these nearly decade-long wars have raged on. I know much of this is political, and I don’t even want to near that line of discussion. What I do want to say is that the level of dedication from these volunteers was simply heartwarming. What bothered me was the thought that these very people who are so giving of their time, money and efforts are the same people who have already given themselves over to the anxiety-ridden, all-encompassing fear that comes with having a loved-one at war.
It all got me thinking back to my college days and my work studying the war literature of Tim O’Brien for my undergraduate thesis. Many may know his novel The Things They Carried, which chronicled his involvement in the Vietnam War. In it, O’Brien uses fictional characters and fabricated situations to try to convey the emotions, fear, dread, boredom, mind-games, pain and more that come with being a soldier. As I was pondering the inevitable parallels—fair or not—that have been drawn between Vietnam and Iraq or Afghanistan, an old quote I couldn’t completely recall kept playing in the back of my mind. With some luck and some thanks to my younger self, who took down page numbers and marked quotes for everything I read, I found the lines in O’Brien’s most recent novel, July, July from 2002. As I thought, the lines don’t just resonate with the echoes of the Vietnam era; they carry an even more striking tenor today. In July, July, O’Brien has created a fictional college class, the Darton Hall College class of 1969, and from it he contrasts those who fought in Vietnam with those who stayed and went to college. The story centers on the modern-day class reunion and explores the effects the war has had on the characters. In the following lines, O’Brien taps into much of what I’ve been feeling since leaving the Gorge Heroes Club packing event.
“And while people perished on the far side of the planet, other people had their teeth filled, and filed for divorce, and made love in parked cars.
Freshmen were oriented.
The Mets were on a roll.
Small, simple things, yes, but in some great nationwide darkroom, the most ordinary human snapshots would be fixed in memory by the acidic wash of war—the music, the lingo, the evening news.”
We all know the legacy of the Vietnam War. We know the protests, the lack of support showed to some returning soldiers, the divisive politics. One parallel I don’t see, not at all, from this current set of wars to the one O’Brien is writing about is the backdrop. When we look back historically we see the scenes of the late 1960s set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. We understand much of what happened in the years after the war to be a result of the war. Will we feel this way about the two wars we’re fighting now? We’re a larger country, we’re a very politically divided country and we are in a news-cycle and internet age that we haven’t harvested an understanding of yet.
I guess a lot of what stuck with me after interviewing RaeLynn Ricarte, one of the founders of the Gorge Heroes Club, and after volunteering at their event, is that much of our country today is missing the context—the backdrop—that these wars are providing us. Regardless of our opinions, politics and arguments, these wars are taking place. I’m glad I had the opportunity to be reminded, very gently, of the sacrifices and spent-lives these wars have already demanded. For the most part, we can choose how we feel about a major event like a war; we can even choose whether or not we go, or, thanks in large part to modern news coverage, we can choose whether or not we even pay attention to these wars. What we can’t choose is the fact that they’ve happened. They’re going on now, and they’ve become the backdrop to our era. Our new millennium, our new century, the last nine years and the next few years will all be set against a backdrop of war. I don’t ever want to forget that, and I’m not sure it’s healthy for any of us if we do.
2 Responses to “The Context of Our Lives”
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RaeLynn says:
Matt, thanks for the thought provoking write-up on the Gorge Heroes Club. I feel compelled to provide an answer to the question that you have raised about whether it is healthy for our society to forget that a war is going on. As you know, I am the mother of a Marine fighting in Afghanistan and he recently said to me, “Mom, America is not at war; we are at war while America is partying.” It is very, very important for the morale of our troops that they feel people back at home are engaged and caring about their sacrifices. They are putting their lives on the line and they need to know that is appreciated and that it matters to the people that sent them to battle. Being in a protected society is not an excuse for apathy, nor is disagreement with the war. Our men and women in uniform were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan by the elected representatives of this country and every America owes them a debt of gratitude for stepping forward and answering the call of their duty. This is an all-volunteer military and some of these Heroes are on their fourth and fifth deployments. GHC just provides an avenue for people to show their thanks to the troops and it is very heartening for the area’s military families to have local communities share the burden of providing comfort and care.
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Ann says:
Volunteering for GHC last month has helped to raise my awareness of the sacrifices our neighbors are making. I hope to do my part to make sure these men and women and their families are not forgotten.
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Tags: article, columbia gorge, columbia gorge living, column, gorge, matt werbach, raelynn ricarte, soldier, war
