Respect...

Nori,

I too apologize for the harshness of my response to your addition to this website. Military life must be hard for you (and your husband) for a number of reasons--distance probably being the least of it. I'm sincerely sorry for my tone. And, by the way, you have every right to be proud of the work your husband does--I have friends serving in the military myself, and while my friends and I don't see eye-to-eye on every issue, we love and respect one another. There is no doubt in my mind that both you and your husband are good people.

It must be difficult to think that if we were to go to war with another country, there would be people like Jane Fonda calling your husband a baby killer--or worse, defaming his memory and his commitment to his country through their protests. I realize that it is not the men in the fields who create the the conflicts they are enlisted to fight in. It is somewhat reassuring to me that we are not in that position, and that these exchanges are merely academic.

Don't get me wrong, I never said that I agreed with everything Jane Fonda did while protesting the Vietnam War (and I'm not trying to have it both ways here), but, it seems to me at least, most of the vitriol directed toward her is misdirected and all out of proportion. Furtermore, it irks me to know that a lot of that hatred out there circulating around her is based on fabricated or unsubstantiated allegations. A lot of what is said about Jane Fonda's actions while in Vietnam is simply not true.

I read in another website that 292 American men serving in Vietnam lost their lives from the time she went to Vietnam in 1972 to the end of our military involvement in that country. 292 out of almost 59,000 Americans who lost their lives--not a trivial amount by any means, but what this tells me is that Ms. Fonda got into the game pretty late and that many, many protesters came before her. There were people who actually committed acts of terrorism on ROTC buildings who are not as reviled as Jane Fonda--this really confuses the hell out of me. Jane Fonda never knowingly harmed another person--and she should not be held responsible for the loss of life resulting from a conflict she was peacefully trying to bring to an end. And while she may have made some thoughtless, disrespectful statements regarding the men who were actually fighting that war, she never did what some others in this website have alleged she has done.

You have every right to dislike Jane Fonda for the things she said regarding the men who served in Vietnam. You have every right not to believe she is sincere when she makes public apologies regarding the hurt her words may have inflicted on the men who simply did what their elected leaders made them do. I say this with no spite or sarcasm--she was wrong and she has admitted as much--many times, in fact. People aren't perfect, but I was taught that it takes a big person to admit when they're wrong--so shouldn't we reserve the kind of bile we have collectively spat at Jane Fonda ("...I would cut off her eyelids so she could see me beat her..", "I wouldn't piss in her mouth if her teeth were on fire..."--just a few of the lovely things some others in this website have said they would do if given the opportunity) for the people who put us in Vietnam in the first place and who have NEVER admitted to their mistakes? When you get right down to it, wasn't it their mistakes that cost us nearly 59,000 American lives, not to mention countless millions of Southeast Asian lives?

I hope you and your husband are soon reunited.

Danny