Back in 1967 I was a 19-year-old Marine rifleman in Vietnam. I saw a few gunfights and some other things. I guess in the modern USA lexicon it was mass shootings or active shooters. I never knew for sure in some situations if I killed anybody. Fog of war and all that stuff.

I think maybe what was and is more confusing is the fog of coming home. I got knocked out with an explosion and was eventually sent to Oak Knoll Naval hospital for discharge. I had to wait on paperwork, so I ended up having to deliver mail between the wards. There were three amputee wards with a lot of different situations, some with multiple limb loss. On the weekends I could get a pass from the hospital to go into San Francisco.

August 1967, the Summer of Love in San Francisco, Haight and Ashbury, hippies, drugs. If you’re going to San Francisco be sure to wear a flower in your hair. Definitely a different kind of America than was back at the hospital.

I think the recent school shootings show that the different Americas that was then is now. It seems that the flower children’s children get quite emotional when school kids are slaughtered and can’t really offer any solutions other than trying to disarm those who did the fighting in our wars. Ban this, ban that, no guns here and all that. What the real tragedy is the most towns and cities where these terrible things happen have many veterans who are fathers, grandfathers, uncles and aunts, some who have had combat experience, been there done that and could stop all the school shootings but it seems that the vocal, never-been-shot-at violence virgins, end up in charge of security. Why in God’s name are those with bronze stars, silver stars, purple hearts, combat action ribbons, combat infantry badges, passed over in favor of those who would put teddy bears and balloons on makeshift memorials where a dozen or more died when a vet donating his time could have made sure only one grave needed to be dug. That of the would-be shooter.

Ah, I guess the fog of the political war will be around for quite a while. Fifty-some years ago draft dodgers like Bill Clinton and Joe Biden didn’t like gun violence and found a way to get a deferment and advance their political careers. It goes on. As a mental exercise try to imagine Chuck Schumer, Beto O’Rourke, Elon Musk, Whoopee Goldberg, Don Lemon, AOC, my Oregon Senators Wyden and Merkley, and the Oregon congressional house. Imagine an endless list of politicians, celebrities, sports stars and professional BS’ers on cable news and talk radio actually standing up and facing violence. No way, they hire men with guns to protect them.

A lot more than 20 young people were lost at the Texas school shooting. Battle lines have been drawn. The Second Amendment is under attack. It is designed to be a barrier to tyranny. Sending men with guns to disarm men with guns who believe that won’t end well.

In the meantime let’s make the schools a hard target. Defend them.

Steve Culley

La Grande