Ecclesiastes 1:10
I just finished watching The Vietnam War on PBS. It has ten segments, and I already feel I need to watch it again to try to understand more of the complicated history that led into what Americans know as "Vietnam".
There are so many things that I felt as I watched. But as I watched episode 9, "A Disrespectful Loyalty (May 1970-March 1973)", I had an uncomfortable sense of deja vu. I listened to veterans discuss their involvement with protests after returning home from fighting honorably during their tours. I watched footage of protests in cities across this country calling for an end to the war. I heard recordings of private conversations between political leaders that made clear the efforts to mislead this country and the world. I watched angry people marching in the streets with signs calling into question the integrity of the media and insisting that Americans must support the president. I heard opposing views of patriotism: one veteran said,
...and being a citizen I had certain responsibilities. And the largest of those responsibilities is standing up to your government and saying 'no' when you think it's doing something that is not in this nation's best interest...I served my country as honorably when I was in Vietnam Veterans Against the War, as I did as a United States Marine.
while many Americans echoed President Nixon's call for "Peace with Honor" and decried any war protest as anti-American and anti-military.
I also watched footage of protests that got violent, and even deadly--like the one at Kent State in which the National Guard shot 4 students who were either there to protest or in the wrong place at the wrong time.
My heart was sick as I thought: what is happening in our country today is not new.
I am not a historian, and I've heard the sayings "history repeats itself," and "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." So I'm not sure why what I saw and recognized was so jarring to me. Perhaps it's the helpless feelings I have with increasing frequency as our country seems more and more divided over race and politics. Or maybe it's that it doesn't seem as if we---as a country--have learned anything from our past.
But, ever the optimist, I saw hope as I watched the final segment: "The Weight of Memory (March 1973-onward). As I watched, one of the former anti-war protesters became teary as she recounted words she had said and things she had done and offered an agonized apology for it all. I was encouraged by her softening, by her understanding that as much as she had been certain at one time of this absolute point of view, she had grown and learned, and her thoughts had evolved.
It is humbling for me to glimpse how much I don't know and understand. But I feel motivated and energized by all the ways that I can continue to grow in knowledge and understanding of this very messy and broken world. But most of all, I am filled with hope because while, as Solomon observed in Ecclesiastes, "nothing is ever truly new" (v. 10 NLT), he spoke of the things of this earth. And I, as one saved by Jesus Christ, can choose to see things from a greater perspective--one in which I am assured that our God did "something NEW" (Isaiah 43:19) in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and continues to act each day, so that in spite of the chaos surrounding, I can also see hope spring forth in conversations I have with people or stories I hear of healing interactions, or kindness shown in spite of unkindness. I have a responsibility to seek these things out and be obedient to God's call in them, but He is good, He is sovereign, and He has overcome it all.
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