I’ve now reached old age and realize that in 20 years, I’ll most likely be dead. Before I die though, I’d like to bear witness to a few things. I’ve spent much of my life roaming the earth and have visited over 100 countries. I’ve almost died so many times that it’s almost a joke. I’ve had a belly full of trouble. I’ve seen things as bad as they get–famines, revolutions, riots, and wars. I’ve seen people act, not like animals, but far worse. In all those situations though, there have always been heroes. When there were famines, I saw people swarming in from all over the world who wanted to feed the hungry and reduce suffering in any way they could.
I was in India in 2002(?) at the time of the terrible Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat. When people think they can get away with it, some people will do horrendous acts, but not everyone. I remember the story of a Hindu boy (supposedly he wasn’t much of a scholar) who broke through the line of rioters, and rescued his Muslim professor. I know of a town called Rahm Rahim Nagar where the poorest Hindus and Muslims lived together in a small neighborhood. When the rioters came pouring out of Ahmebdad, the young men of the town, Hindus and Muslims together, linked arms at the three entrances to their village and kept the rioters out.
The war in Vietnam was a stupid war. Fifty-thousand Americans and one million Vietnamese died for nothing. America entered the war out of ignorance, and Ho Chi Min’s pigheadedness and refusal to negotiate a withdrawal caused totally unnecessary mayhem as well.
Most Americans don’t have the slightest idea of the utter horror of a B-52 carpet bombing. It’s almost beyond description. I have talked to several people who have been through these bombings.
I once met a man who had been through one of these bombings. Among his unit, he and another man were the only ones to survive. Over the course of the war, this man incurred many wounds. One of the least of these was a gunshot wound to his arm. He had been crossing the river when an American helicopter caught him on a sandbar with nowhere to hide. The door gunner was toying with him, shooting behind him so that he had to run to one end of the sandbar and then shooting in front of him so that he had to run back the other way. He got pissed off and turned around, looked up at the helicopter, and gave a mock salute to the pilot. The pilot returned his salute and then peeled off down the river, leaving him alive.
Twenty years ago I met a Vietnam veteran in a bar in Mexico City. He told me a story that might have been true or might not. The point is it could have been true. The love we had for each other back then means it could have been true.
Two best friends were about to be surrounded by an NVA patrol. One of them was shot and obviously wasn’t going to make it. His guts were spilling out on the jungle floor. They were about to be cut off by the enemy, but this guy wouldn’t leave his friend, so the injured man put his rifle to his head and pulled the trigger.
Heroes don’t have to be super-men or super-women. We all have what it takes.

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