Thursday, October 19, 2006

"Spitting on Veterans" -- It Just Won't Go Away

I've blogged before in this space on the whole bogus spitting-on-Vietnam-veterans meme and what a pussy it makes of those Vietnam vets who have, over the years, convinced themselves of the truth of these incidents, when in fact there are absolutely zero contemporary accounts of it actually happening.

But it's one of those things, like so many other Urban Legends, that just won't die. The lead paragraph of this recent story out of Tyler, Texas, is another example of it.

I don't know if these three vets actually said that to the reporter or if she took it on herself to toss it in because it would jazz up a story about a vandalized Vietnam veterans memorial, but either way it's an insult. I'd like it to die, but I guess that's too much to hope for.

Sadly, two hundred years from now (assuming we last that long as a species -- a doubtful proposition) that will still be one of the factoids about the Vietnam War that people "know".

1 Comment:

Anonymous said...

Sorry just skimmed the article but it sounds like we need to publicly stone the reporting for making that shit up. There were no quotes about spit and rotten eggs just the reporter adding color to the story. Maybe we should spit on and throw rotten eggs at the reporter so they will know what being spit on and being hit with rotten eggs really is? Not just something to add emtion to an otherwise limp story.