Deport her? Why? For What?

Jimmy-

You talk about all the war stories your uncles have shared with you over the years regarding Vietnam and Jane Fonda. You're a pretty lucky guy to have uncles who can tell you about it. My mother lost her ONLY brother in that war--I don't have an uncle to tell me about his experiences in Vietnam. But I do have a mother who can tell me about her loss...a mother who I can see cry every time we visit The Wall...a mother who I can drive to the cemetary so she can place flowers on her brother's grave. I can look at pictures of my young uncle holding me as in infant on his motorcycle and wonder what kind of relationship we would have today were it not for that war. I can watch my grandfather, a strong and proud man, choke back tears every Memorial Day when his only son's name is read aloud as one the young men sacrificed from our community for Flag and Country.

When I was younger, probably closer to your age now, I asked my mother what she thought of Jane Fonda. I had a feeling that she wouldn't think too highly of a person who fraternized with the very people who killed her brother, who called POW's "liars and hypocrites", a person who made broadcasts denouncing the United States' involvement in that part of the world, a person who was photograhed atop an anti-aircraft gun smiling and singing Vietnamese folk songs. How could she feel anything but utter contempt for such a person--especially after having lost her only, beloved brother to that war, to those people? What she said surprised me, though--surprised and confused me. She said that there should have been more people like Jane Fonda...more people willing to take a stand against that war...more people willing to risk their stature and popularity rather than sit idly by while our young men were being ordered to kill and die for...for...for what? Maybe if there had been more people like her, my mother's brother might be alive. Sounds like Jane Fonda was fighting for that "greater good" you spoke of in your previous thread--at least to me, anyway. There is definitely more than one way to look at and judge Jane Fonda's actions in the early 70's--and other people who suffered GREAT loss resulting from that war deserve as much respect for holding that opinion as your uncles do for believing as they do.