Volume III. No. 37
 04-22-05
 Leave Jane Fonda Alone
 author: Vance Cureton
 © Copyright 2005
 

 Oh, it just had to come to this. Jane Fonda has spent several weeks now promoting  her 
 new autobiography. The curiously titled "My Life So Far."

 Hmmm. Maybe the title of her book isn't so ambitious, afterall. Jane is merely 67. 
 She's still a beauty. There is more life to be lived. 

 This week a grubby-looking Vietnam Vet named Michael Smith stood in line for 90 minutes 
 at Jane's book signing in Kansas City, so that he could have the priviledge of spitting 
 in her face. Which he did.

 Unfortunately, there wasn't a big, ham-fisted bodyguard, or an ex-hubby sitting next 
 to Jane at the time the spittle flew, but we digress.

 This loser apparently does not think much of Jane's apology for sitting in the gun turret 
 of a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun back in 1969. Or for allowing herself to be 
 exploited by the Vietcong, as a propaganda tool.

 Oh my. First the fact-manipulating Swift-Boaters, and now a loser with a mouthful of 
 tobacco juice, seem intent on reliving the pain of the 1960s. No apology is ever enough 
 for these guys.

 Well, here are a few questions for Michael "The Spitter" Smith from the  perspective 
 of the aggrieved citizens of Vietnam.

 1.) Will Michael Smith, on behalf of all Vietnam vets, apologize to the  "heathen" women 
 in Southeast Asia who were brutally raped by American  soldiers? Late middle-aged men 
 who now solemnly walk hand-in-hand into Sunday morning church services, their wives 
 totally unaware of what these "decent God-Fearing Christian men" did over there to those 
 uncivilized "savages."

 { This is not an anti-American sentiment, as war in general, is a time of chaos and 
 disorder. Sexual crimes and other forms of brutality against women are commonplace 
 during military conflict where exhausted, rage-filled, paranoid men are capable of 
 almost anything...} 

 2.) Will Michael Smith apologize to the women in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos who  
 were impregnated by their American "boyfriends." Men who lied to and promised these 
 naive village girls a wonderful life in America just so they could enjoy some consensual 
 comfort without paying for it.

 These women, by the thousands, were subsequently abandoned to raise their mixed-race 
 babies all alone. Babies - now adults - that were forced to endure unremitting racial 
 prejudice and bigotry, because of the ethnic identity of their fathers.

 Will Michael Smith apologize to these women who watched their children suffer shame 
 and humiliation in silence?

 3.) Will Michael Smith apologize to the surviving relatives of innocent villagers who 
 were gunned down in the "shoot first, ask questions later... "  atmosphere of the war?

 4.) Will Michael Smith apologize to the thousands of Southeast Asians who have suffered
 debilitating illnesses because of the lingering effects of exposure to such defoliants as 
 Agent Orange? Perhaps he will also apologize to the innocent civilians who have been 
 maimed by unexploded ordinance that was left behind when American forces departed the 
 war theatre.

 Can Michael Smith who believes an accounting is due for the injustices of what 
 happened to him upon his return to the United States. Can he apologize for any of 
 the above crimes?

 War is an ugly mess. It is untidy, and a creator of human tragedy that respects no 
 boundaries of class, race, nationality, or gender. In her youth, Jane Fonda made a 
 horrible mistake in judgement. Her post-adolesent rebellion was carried out in front 
 of the entire world. She was every bit the spoiled, self-indulgent young woman that 
 she has since admitted in her own writings.

 She behaved as a fool.

 But, Jane Fonda is only one person. She did not prosecute that war. Politicians who 
 are long-since buried in the ground, did that. Presumably, these deceased "warriors" 
 have had to explain to a higher power their culpability in placing American soldiers 
 on a warfront where they were intentionally prevented from routing the enemy because 
 of political considerations back home.

 Jane Fonda has apologized. Believe it or not. Accept her apology or not,  and move on. 
 To foist blame upon this one woman for all the excesses of  the anti-war movement of 
 that era is simplistic in the extreme. Soldiers returning home from Vietnam having to 
 walk a gauntlet of spittle is, in fact, more urban legend than reality. 

 America, as a nation, underwent a period of intense soul-searching in the years that 
 have passed since the conclusion of that awful war in Southeast Asia. Jane Fonda 
 has/had personal issues which she openly admitted in her autobiography. That is far 
 more of an accounting than the ignorant lout who spat tobacco juice in her face has 
 ever given.
 
 

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