News & Commentary from Veteran Writers/Activists
"The experience we have of our lives from within, the story we tell ourselves about ourselves in order to account for what we are doing, is thus a lie -- the truth lies rather outside, in what we do." Slavoj Zizek Soldiers and veterans from Iraq, Afghanistan and other wars are killing themselves, according to Sixty Minutes, at a rate of 22-a-day. For any fair-minded person whose mind is not locked into a dehumanized … [Read more...]
Backyard Productions presents COMMEMORATE THIS! A short comedy on history and the Vietnam War (To watch the film, click on the title above) In 2008, Congress created a 13-year, $5-million-per-year propaganda project to clean up the image of the Vietnam War. It's called The Vietnam War Commemoration Project and it focuses on issues of individual honor and bravery. It avoids the controversial historical and moral issues … [Read more...]
STILL WAITIN' - A short video produced by: The Vietnam War Commemoration CORRECTION Project You-Tube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMuc3RU0pEk&feature=youtu.be The pentagon's Vietnam War Commemoration Project was funded by Congress to the tune of $5 millions a year for the next1 13 years. That's $125 million of our tax dollars to fund events designed by "patriotic" local organizations to clean up the … [Read more...]
No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people. - H.L. Mencken Frontline recently ran a documentary that amounted to interwoven bios of the respective characters of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It made two points very clear. One, it takes an obsessive personal determination to seek the office of President of the United States of America. And, two, this being America in 2012, the capacity … [Read more...]
Life is overflowing with metaphorical material. Maneuvering through reality is a constant dialogue and negotiation between what’s inside our heads and what’s going on outside in the chaotic flow of what is. We understand what's outside by comparing it with what's inside. This is true whether or not the average anti-intellectual Joe Sixpack or Joe the Plumber recognizes it or not. In fact, those who don't understand … [Read more...]
Vietnam, a story of virtually unmitigated disasters that we have inflicted on ourselves and even more on others. -Bernard Brodie, 1973 The Vietnamese won the Vietnam War by forcing the United States to abandon its intention to militarily sustain an artificially divided Vietnam. The history is clear: It was the United States, not the Vietnamese, who scotched the unifying elections agreed on for 1956 in the Geneva … [Read more...]
