Vietnam Talks Again

(Excerpt from Declaration of Independence for the New Earth,  

by Anna Rebecca Quinn) 

Here we are again, as a country and a people, having the Vietnam talks again.  

It’s the age-old conversation between the old and the young that we have when war looms large on the horizon.  

It’s a dialogue between the elders,  

who sacrificed for their country,  

and the youth, who see how immoral and murderous their own government has become.  

Our patriotic elders say, “We laid our lives on the line for the country you’re now protesting against, and the corruption you speak of must be a mad conspiracy.”  

Our idealistic youth reply, “With all respect, brave elders, the country for which you laid your life on the line has been co-opted and captured by an immoral force, which is now being used against you and every free soul. 

You do not see it because you do not want to see how cruelly you’ve been used by a country you bravely offered your life to protect. 

History is full of governments that started out with virtuous intent, but became corrupt in the hands of a few, who sought to possess power for themselves.  

Yet it is still soul-shocking when it happens to yours.”