Spitting Out the Truth

Say what you will about the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, at least American and Coalition service men and women are receiving almost universally unflagging support and the highest praise. We should admire those among us to have the courage to make the ultimate sacrifice in protecting our freedoms. The intelligence, or lack thereof, on the part of our leaders in choosing to enter into such conflicts should in no way overshadow the sacrifice of those who have to do the dirty work. After all, we don’t want to repeat the disgraces heaped upon our returning Vietnam soldiers – of being spat upon and told they were “baby killers” when they returned home from an unpopular war.

Though I was in college at the time of the Vietnam war, I was called for my induction physical in preparation for being drafted. Fortunately, I never received my official “Greetings” letter. However I do have many friends and acquaintances who served, both voluntarily and involuntarily; some of whom were deployed to Vietnam. Oddly, only one of them ever said they were spat on while in uniform upon returning from the war.

Joe mentioned the incident during a party where he was talking about his two sons currently serving overseas. I like Joe but he has always been the kind of guy who likes to impress... particularly if there are attractive women present. Sure like many, he pads his credentials a bit and I usually brush off a lot of what he says as harmless bluster. But truthfully; I don’t believe for one moment that anyone spit on him… perhaps for other reasons, but not likely in the context of his being a uniformed returning vet.

I have always been troubled by these accounts of spitting on returning Vietnam veterans; frankly the image of such alleged deeds chaff against my “reasonableness meter”. Yet these stories persist in the news media. I heard it yet again this week cited by a National Public Radio reporter. Earlier this year, Conservative reporter Glenn Beck conjured up a story of an Iraq War veteran being spat upon at a rally in Washington.

The image of a war protester spitting on a soldier or veteran generates an extremely visceral response – and I believe that is precisely why this myth tends to persist. The metaphor is a strong indictment of those who oppose war in general and certain wars in particular. It has all the elements of a very jagged propaganda tool.

In researching this story I discovered a book written by Jerry Lembcke, "The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam" (New York University Press, 1998). Jerry is an associate professor of sociology at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts and a Vietnam veteran himself. Troubled by the pervasiveness of this story, his book is the result of direct interviews of hundreds of veterans claiming being spat upon. What he discovered was that ALL of these accounts appeared to fall apart when the claimants were pressed for details. Indeed, though the media still seems to report these incidents as fact, there remain no substantiating news articles, tape or pictures to support these claims.

What Lembcke found even more remarkable were that in virtually all such accounts, the soldiers always walked away in sadness or shame – never, it seemed, did any of these service men “punch the lights out” of any of these spitting war protesters. Such altercations would clearly have generated some level of media coverage, if not police incident reports.

Lembcke states: ” …the Veterans Administration commissioned a Harris Poll in 1971 that found 94% of Vietnam veterans reporting friendly homecomings from their age-group peers who had not served in the military.”^[1] According to the people I know personally who served in Vietnam, they recall nothing but praise and support for them. In fact, several remember their service as a positive experience.

Then why does this myth of war protesters spitting on veterans seem to persist? As Jack Shafer of Slate Magazine writes: “The myth persists because: 1) Those who didn't go to Vietnam--that being most of us--don't dare contradict the "experience" of those who did; 2) the story helps maintain the perfect sense of shame many of us feel about the way we ignored our (sic) Vietvets; 3) the press keeps the story in play by uncritically repeating it... 4) because any fool with 33 cents [postage] and the gumption to repeat the myth in his letter to the editor can keep it in circulation.”^[2]

With upcoming elections, currently our nation is awash in all manner of urban folklore being spewed forth over the airwaves in an attempt to sway the appeal of one political candidate over another. Unfortunately when emotionally-charged issues are involved, one of the first casualties is the truth.

~ ~ ~

References:

1. Spitting on the Troops: Old Myth, New Rumors, The Veteran, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Spring 2003
2. Drooling on the Vietnam Vets, Slate Magazine, May 2, 2000
3. Beck went beyond NY Times' and Sparling's (contradictory) accounts of "spitting incident" to ask: "Have we learned nothing from Vietnam?", Media Matters for America, February 1, 2007

True Lies - The Answers

Ok everyone, put down your pencils and pass your answer sheets to the front.

1. My first job out of college was as a “Repo Man” - I repossessed cars from people who were behind on their payments.
TRUE – I worked for a major Northwest bank in various management positions for twelve years, however, my entry-level position during my first two years, was that of Outside Collector which required me to bring delinquent auto loans current or repossess the collateral. As far as I know, I still hold the record for stealing the most cars (5) in a single night. To this day it remains the most fun I ever had at a job.


3. I asked my current wife to marry me after we had known each other only ten days. TRUE – My wife had been divorced for ten years and I for two years when we met. I proposed to her while she was driving her Volkswagen Bug with her two kids sleeping in the back seat. The second the words literally fell out of my mouth I thought “You Dumb Ass… You can kiss this one good-bye!!!”. But instead, it took her less than three seconds to accept.

This September, we will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.

4. I am so frightened of the dentist that I skipped out in the middle of taking a dental school entrance exam. TRUE – An over-bearing mother charted what she had determined was the acceptable career path for her son; which was either as doctor or a dentist. I was just a year out (sort-a) on my own in junior college experiencing my first taste of freedom.

In the midst of taking that exam, I realized two things: 1. My mother had planned out my entire life including who she was expecting me to marry, and 2. I would NEVER be capable of doing something to another person that I was terrified of being done to me. It was INSANE to think that I could be a dentist. During the lunch recess in the middle of the exam, I got into my car and drove away.

5. I am terrified of heights.
TRUE – I am very uncomfortable being up in tall buildings and am even nervous driving over high bridges. I worked in the 10th story of a downtown Portland building and was perfectly happy to have my desk situated in the middle of the room away from the windows.

However, my fear of heights did not stop me from taking up skydiving in my mid 40’s. I had my own parachute and jumped every weekend for over two years before deciding that I had proven to myself that I would not allow FEAR to prevent my pursuing opportunity.

(And just in case you were wondering… I do visit my dentist regularly every six months.)

6. I have never smoked “Marijuana”. TRUE – As an infant my family lived a couple of blocks from San Francisco’s Height-Ashbury district; I attended high school and college during the Golden Age of the Hippie Movement and I had lots of buddies who did drugs. Though, as unusual as it may be for someone growing up during Sex-Drugs-and-Rock & Roll generation, I still never could rationalize to myself the idea of putting anything into my body that was marketed by outlaws. Still don’t.

7. I once threw a dart, missing the bulls-eye, which instead stuck into my cousin’s skull. TRUE – Under the category of stupid kid tricks, my two cousins and I were playing “William Tell” and we stood my younger cousin up against the wall directly under the dart board. The first dart I threw fell short, sticking firmly into the top of the younger cousin’s head. He pulled it out and threw it back at us. However, we bribed him with candy to not tell our parents. The bribe took and we got the point.

2. I contracted Polio in the 1950’s and spent some time in the dreaded Iron Lung
LIE – One of my greatest fears growing up as a little kid was seeing pictures of people confined to an Iron Lung. I worried about it obsessively, wondering how they went to the bathroom or scratched their nose if it itched. Though I never knew of anyone personally who had been confined to an Iron Lung, I was still terrified that somehow I would end up in one.

But I lived during a very fortunate era; As a result of a national effort to completely eradicate Polio in our lifetime, our whole town turned out to be administered the Salk vaccine, (some pink stuff squirted onto a sugar cube – imagine that, no needles!).

Nobody correctly determined which statement was the lie, so I am instead awarding consolation prizes -
My strategy in conjuring up these contest questions was that I figured six of the questions could appear to contain some atypical or unusual criteria making them remarkable to some degree – whereas contracting polio in the 1950’s (my assumption) would have been entirely possible, therefore "unremarkable", thereby judged a lie.

However, the Distinguished Panel of Contest Judges (my Wife) has determined that my rationale was significantly flawed in that, unless one knew me or I had previously blogged about the subject, the only real way anyone would correctly select the false statement would be by random guess. To emphasize her point, she challenged me to identify anyone I had actually known who had ever had polio as a child, least of all confined to an iron lung. I couldn't.

Therefore, She (I mean, the judges) has decided that my contest was bogus and has ruled that I should at least award prizes to some of you who participated in the exercise.

So, I will send DVD's to the first 10 contestants who e-mail me with their preferred postal mailing address to sales@skepticalmedia.com by the end of the weekend. I will put them in the mail next week. I ship First Class mail and International First Class.

Thanks to everyone who participated, you were all great sports. Have a great weekend ~ I'm planning more mayhem for next week.

True Lies

I thought I would initiate the month of June on a bit of an upbeat note. I lifted this idea from fellow blogger Mary Whitsell from her excellent blog, Resident Alien where she had readers guess which one of her statements was a lie.

Below are six true statements and one false statement about me. The first 10 readers who correctly deduce the one lie below, will receive a free DVD of my documentary: Andrus, the Man, the Mind & the Magic. (And yes, I do ship international).

Incidentally, Jerry Andrus prided himself on never telling lies (though he recounts in the film about the one he admits he told during his life).

The contest will end June 4^th at midnight when the answers and the winning commenter(s) will be revealed.

(Contest rules: One guess per commenter though you can delete
and change your guess at any time before the contest ends.
Void in locations where your name is Kara)

Ready… set… go!

1. My first job out of college was as a “Repo Man” - I repossessed cars from people who were behind on their payments.

2. I contracted Polio in the 1950’s and spent some time in the dreaded Iron Lung.

3. I asked my current wife to marry me after we had known each other only ten days.

4. I am so frightened of the dentist that I skipped out in the middle of taking a dental school entrance exam.

5. I am terrified of heights.

6. I have never smoked “Marijuana”.

7. I once threw a dart, missing the bulls-eye, which instead stuck into my cousin’s skull.

Good luck!!