A Perspective on Tragedy

The press has suffocated us during the past week with the "tragic" death of the young actor, Heath Ledger. From reports, Ledger was a young man who had a limitless future. He, according to neighbors, was a doting dad to his two year old daughter, and did not live the "Hollywood" lifesyle, preferring a quite, private life. Sensational journalism abounds, with speculation about the prescription medications found in his apartment and this morning the lack of details about his families decision to have a private memorial service and to bury him in his native Australia. Try as they may the press cannot seem to crack the private life and ultimately private death of this young man. One word continues to be thrown about and that is "tragic". Other actors have said that this is such a "tragedy". While I am sorry for the loss to his family, especially to his toddler daughter, and I am not unsympathetic to their loss, this is not a tragedy.

Webster defines tragedy as a disastrous event and tragic as a calamitous or disastrous. When you read the definition and then reflect on true tragic events, even the untimely death of a young talented actor is small by comparison. Lets talk about a tragic event that has been on my mind lately.

As I mentioned in my first post, I am kind of a military history buff. As the daughter of a Vietnam Veteran, I am especially interested in reading books about that time period. I am currently reading a book called Homecoming. It is an older book, written in the early 80's and contains letters by literally hundreds of Veterans and their families about their experiences coming back to the US from their tours in Vietnam. I am absolutely horrified to read of the stories of these brave men who had spent a year or more away from their families, returning to airports full of protesters who aimed their anger and frustration at these men returning from war. These men were called all kinds of vulgar names and many were spit on as they entered the airports. The anger and spit from these "Americans" was not reserved for those Veterans who walked into airports, it was also done to injured Veteran's who were taken off of ambulances and transported to hospitals. These men, risked their lives, many coming back injured and returned to an ungrateful nation. This is a tragedy.

There is no excuse for the behavior of these so-called "Peace-loving" individuals and I can only hope that they are haunted everyday for their actions. It doesn't matter why we were there, if we should have been there, or what the war was about. The hero's that left their homes and families were treated as the enemy upon their return. One Veteran described it very well when he said, "It was very ironic that these people were spitting on me - my willingness to fight gave them the right to spit."

I believe myself to be pretty balanced, I can read stuff and not really get too emotional. I am not the dramatic kind, but I have had to put this book down several times while reading it because my eyes were too filled with tears to see, because I was too angry to continue reading, and because I was literally sick to my stomach at the events. Any country that treats returning troops as the enemy, has gone beyond tragic.

I am so thankful to the men and women who have risked their lives for 200 years to make this the country it is today. It would never even cross my mind to say anything but praises and encouragement to those men and women and I cannot even imagine the deep anger someone would have to have to spit on them. I hope those men who came back from Vietnam know that they are hero's and that what was done to them by those ungrateful cowards is almost unforgivable.

Say a prayer right now for those men and women who have served and are currently serving our country and pray that a tragic even such as this never, never happens again.