And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: At the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial How quickly the tears come is a tribute to their valor and to Maya Lin and the perfection of her vision. I perform an experiment for my students back in San Antonio. Standing before each panel near the casualty-rich center I count the seconds until my eyes find a name that tells of Indian-Spanish heritage: A thousand and one--Flores A thousand and two--Gonzalez A thousand and three--Zuniga A thousand and one--Flores It is a bad day for flowers and I cannot exceed three seconds. The air cavalry burns another village to save it as the choppers clip the morning air over the scent of jellied gasoline and the sound of crying children the fresh troops fly in and the body bags fly out. After they pulled down the tipi an Arapaho elder raised a trade goods hatchet-pipe and the young officer who rode him down turned to finish the old man and was almost thrown for not knowing that a horse will try not to step on a human being or not knowing that the elder struggling to rise on his unbroken arm was a human being. Across the grass there is a new monument to the women. One nurse holds a pressure bandage on the chest of a fallen warrior with the heel of her hand another gazes skyward for Med Evac. The smell of powder and the haze it creates and the constant din-din-din of automatic weapons fire takes all the senses out of the world but for a wild shout that cuts through all the overloaded neural pathways and connects to the here and now: "Medic! We need a medic!" Women were not supposed to be battlefield medics, but they forgot to tell the battlefield. The young officer ended the encounter with a pistol shot to the head close enough to spatter the blue coat red. He had another for the elderly woman uulating over the body. The statue raised to placate those who did not share Maya Lin's vision is not as dreary as I expected. Three young warriors, bone-tired, seem to be regarding the names of their fallen comrades. I stand beside them, crying. copyright 1999 Steve Russell Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. <><<<<<>>>>><><<<<> Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ <><<<<<>>>>><><<<<>