www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1276799/posts
mykdsmom WINSTON-SALEM -- Last week voters went to the polls to select a vision fo r the future. This week, as we honor service and sacrifice on Veterans Day, an image from this p olitical season must be put to rest. The presidential campaign featured the resurgence of a myth from the earl y 1990s. That myth is that soldiers returning from Vietnam were spit upo n by citizens or war protesters. That claim has been used to turn honest differences of opinion about the war into toxic indictments. As a scholar of urban legends I am usually involved with accounts of vani shing hitchhikers and involuntary kidney donors. These stories are folkl ore that harmlessly reveals the public imagination. However, accounts of citizens spitting on returning soldiers -- any nation's soldiers -- are not harmless stories. I have studied urban legends for nearly 20 years and have been certified as an expert on the subject in the federal courts. Nonetheless, it dawne d on me only recently that the spitting story was a rumor that has grown into an urban legend. I never wanted to believe the story but I was afr aid to investigate it for fear that it could be true. The power of the story and the passion of its advocates offer a powerful alchemy of guilt and fear -- emotions not associated with clearheadedness. Labeling the spitting story an urban legend does not mean that something of this sort did not happen to someone somewhere. You cannot prove the n egative -- that something never happened. However, most accounts of spit ting emerged in the mid-1980s only after a newspaper columnist asked his readers who were Vietnam vets if they had been spit upon after the war (an odd and leading question to ask a decade after the war's end). The f raming of the question seemed to beg for an affirmative answer. In 1998 sociologist and Vietnam veteran Jerry Lembcke published "The Spit ting Image: Myth, Media and the Legacy of Viet Nam." He recounts a study of 495 news stories on returning veterans published from 1965 to 1971. That study shows only a handful (32) of instances were presented as in a ny way antagonistic to the soldiers. what spitting was reported was done by citizens expressing displeasure with protesters. Opinion polls of the time show no animosity between soldiers and opponent s of the war. Only 3 percent of returning soldiers recounted any unfrien dly experiences upon their return. So records from that era offer no support for the spitting stories. Lembc ke's research does show that similar spitting rumors arose in Germany af ter World War I and in France after its Indochina war. One of the persis tent markers of urban legends is the re-emergence of certain themes acro ss time and space. There is also a common-sense method for debunking this urban legend. One frequent test is the story's plausibility: how likely is it that the inc ident could have happened as described? Do we really believe that a "dir ty hippie" would spit upon a fit and trained soldier? If such a confront ation had occurred, would that combat-hardened soldier have just ignored the insult? Would there not be pictures, arrest reports, a trial record or a coroner's report after such an event? Lembcke underscores the enduring significance of the spitting story for t his Veterans Day. The meaning of Vietnam and any other war is not static but is created t hrough the stories we tell one another. To reinforce the principle that policy disagreements are not personal vendettas we must put this story t o rest. Our first step forward is to recognize that we are not a society that dis respects the sacrifices of our servicemembers. We should ignore anyone w ho tries to tell us otherwise. Whatever our aspirations for America, tho se hopes must begin with a clear awareness of who we are not.
View Replies To: RaceBannon yeah right, not only was my brother in law spat upon on his return from N am, when he finally got home "the Baby Killer", had to pay 3 xs what was on the cab meter before the sob would drive A Bronze Star winner home!
View Replies To: mykdsmom The presidential campaign featured the resurgence of a myth from the earl y 1990s. I heard about this "myth" during the se venties when I was a kid.
I spent the night in a California jail for beating the crap out of a "lov e child" that spit on me while I was waiting for my duffle bag at the ai rport luggage carosel. I ignored the chants, but the spit earned him some extensive dental work and my right boot rearranged his rib cage. I still have the scars on my knuckles from his dislodged teeth..
I distinctly remember marching in a 4th of Jul y parade when I was in the Boy Scouts in 19-73 or 1974 and we were the c olor guard for the local VFW. The Vets marched according to their servic e with the Viet Nam vets in the rear and they were jeered and booed and had things thrown at them. Most of the time whoever threw something was confronted by someone else in the crowd and the parade was only a couple of blocks long but it DID happen. I remember at first I was bewildered and then extremely angry. My dad was marching with the Korean Vets and h e got a good dose of the hate too and he was fuming.
View Replies To: mykdsmom My brother committed suicide after his return from Nam. Our family believ es one reason was the "welcome" he received when he got home. And I saw people flip him off, turn their backs on him, etc.
View Replies To: mykdsmom "John Llewellyn is an associate professor of communication at Wake Forest University" Not a vet? Not smart enough to win elections, but smart enough to give opinions and insult everyone else.
View Replies To: RaceBannon I was about to ping you to this (you were the first to come to mind) but you beat me to it. More vile absurdities from the lying, amoralistic academia nutjobs.
spat, through eggs, urine in a bag, fecies, called us everything they c ould think of.... I wore my uniform home through Atlanta, to Fayettevill e, NC. I had it cleaned and it hangs in my closet to this say to remind me of them...
LLewellyn were right, which I don't believe for a second, he doesn't bother to cover what Kerry did to the vets when he admittedly li ed to the Senate about their killing babies and other civilians.
View Replies To: mykdsmom This guy illustrates all that is wrong with advanced reasoning as it is r epresented in academia today. An d is intellectually dishonest in defining what he would see as contrary proof. I personally witnesse d three multiple acts of spitting(two were aimed at me)separated by 12 m onths and 16 months.
View Replies To: mykdsmom There is also a common-sense method for debunking this urban legend. One frequent test is the story's plausibility: how likely is it that the inc ident could have happened as described? Do we really believe that a "dir ty hippie" would spit upon a fit and trained soldier? If such a confront ation had occurred, would that combat-hardened soldier have just ignored the insult? Would there not be pictures, arrest reports, a trial record or a coroner's report after such an event? He forgets that the SOLDIER would, if he responded, be in serious trouble with his chain of command, and could expect to be court-martialed for a ssault, battery, and conduct unbecoming.
View Replies To: mykdsmom I just knew y'all would appreciate the opportunity to educate the 'so-cal led' educator. He certainly can't do serious research interviewing those dopers at DU!
View Replies To: mykdsmom Did spitting on returning servicemen happen ? It was the exception, not the rule I think the story was spread with a broad brush. Much like JfnKerry painted all vets as baby killers etc...
View Replies To: mykdsmom Do we really believe that a "dirty hippie" would spit upon a fit and trai ned soldier? If such a confrontation had occurred, would that combat-har dened soldier have just ignored the insult? I wonder if he every thought th at just maybe those dirty hippies traveled in packs, like wild dogs.
View Replies To: mykdsmom 20 years from now, I suspect that it will be considered an "Urban Myth" t hat Republican campaign offices were shot at and had their windows broke n in 2004.
View Replies To: dansangel I can...
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