Locust Fork Veteran Speaks Out Against Iraq War
September 24th, 2005 |
| by Glynn Wilson |
| Morris Gardner of Locust Fork, Alabama, lost both legs to a land mine in Vietnam. He now opposes the war in Iraq. |
by Glynn Wilson
Editor and Publisher
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Sept. 24 - Morris “Mo” Gardner of Locust Fork wheeled up to the microphone on the stage in historic Kellly Ingram Park on Saturday and pleaded with his government to end the war and bring the troops home.
“During the 20th century, 100 million people died as a direct result of war,” he said. “When will we ever learn that war is not the answer?”
Mr. Gardner, 55, a medic in Vietnam when he was only 19 in 1969, set off a land mine. It blew off both his legs, one above the knee.
In an interview, he said he totally opposed the war in Iraq.
“It is based on a lie,” he said, “just like Vietnam.”
In his speech to a couple of hundred peace activists in the park where the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and Martin Luther King changed the country in the 1960s, Mr. Gardner pointed out that 30 percent of those who serve in war zones, injured or not, develop severe psychological problems.
“This is caused by getting so scared, or seeing such horrendous acts of death and destruction that one cannot get the horrors of war out of their heads,” he said. “Flashbacks and nightmares won’t let you forget.”
He talked about the health effects of war on the local populations in countries America has attacked and occupied.
“In Vietnam today, babies are still being born with terrible deformities by Agent Orange and other toxins we left there,” he said. “Now they use depleted uranium in bombs. Are we all just cannon fodder?”
He insisted that there should never be a draft.
“If there isn’t enough volunteers then there isn’t enough public support and we shouldn’t be there,” he said. “No one should ever be forced to fight a war he doesn’t believe in.”
The government owes the American people the truth, Mr. Gardner said. “We have not been told the truth about Iraq.”
In spite of his debilitating injuries, Mr. Gardner does not regret serving.
“I do not regret my service to my country,” he said. “I do regret that my country did not use my service and my sacrifice more wisely.”
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| by Glynn Wilson |
| Vietnam veteran Morris Gardner speaks out against the Iraq war to a crowd of peace activists in Birmingham. |
September 25th, 2005 at 12:11 am
Great story!
September 25th, 2005 at 12:34 am
Thanks Reverend. But it is not so great, at least not because of anything I did.
Getting good stories, like finding great photos, is usually a matter of just being out there and keeping your eyes and ears open. It is a matter of knowing a story when you see it and knowing how to get it down in a readable fashion.
That’s the difference between pretty writing and journalism based on shoe-leather reporting.
Some stories tell themselves, like this one on Mr. Gardner. I would actually like to sit down and talk to him more and do a more detailed feature. If I had been able to talk to Amy Goodman more, I would have done a better story on her.
I must admit that since I started this so-called blog, which to me is just the latest incarnation of a printing press, I have not really spent the time to go all out and attempt to do full-blown national features like I would write if the New York Times was paying me $25 an hour plus expenses and giving me byline credit.
I use this Web site myself as a home page where I keep up with the news and blogs myself. I appreciate the fact that other people find it useful and use it, not only for what I report on and write about, but for the useful collection of links on a fast, tasteful site.
The more support the site gets the more I will go all out and do the best stories and use the best photos possible. One day I may even make a living at it.
It is for the most part fun to own your own press where you can do what you want without editors in far away places telling you exactly what the slant on the story should be. It would be nice to have more contributors, and I’m working on a number of writers from all over the country to get involved. It would also be nice to have a copy editor who could keep up with me : )
You should know that there are a group of writers in New York and right here in Birmingham who think they can scare me into censoring what I write. Some of them even send me vicious notes through anonymous e-mail addresses threatening to “destroy” me.
I could publish these letters and debate the authors ad nauseum, but that would do nothing to serve the readers here.
Everyone should be aware that a blog is not a highly controlled “family newspaper.”
We like to let it fly, so to speak, like we think Hunter Thompson would - if he were alive and blogging.
So for the local press corps, let’s just say you have been warned. If we see cheap right-wing journalism in these parts, we will go after it. You will never give us credit, but I suspect you will do a better job in the future as a result of the criticism.
As for the New York crowd, we appreciate all the intense interest in our careers, we really do. All I have to say is “show us the money.”
For their vicious little friends, you may want to get them to go back and read New York Times vs. Sullivan. There is a such thing as libel based on malice.
And as I tried to tell Fellow Traveler in replying to his fake e-mail address, if my conservative partner on the radio is right, the dirty bombs will be unleashed any day now on 10 American cities, including New York. If you were as smart as you seem to think you are, you would be getting out now, like the evacuees fleeing the fury of hurricanes on the Gulf Coast.
It is obvious this administration does not know how to run government and keep us safe as they claimed in the campaign. They only know how to run government into the ground and reward their cronies. They will not be there to save you.