Journal Entry-Why I don't respect U.S war veterans-Jonon Gansukh

CONTENT AND TRIGGER WARNING- GRAPHIC WAR IMAGES

Dear Journal,

I never understood why people celebrated U.S war veterans. Why are there whole holidays created for them? The U.S military is just a stretch of its own colonization. 

The Korean and Vietnam wars were just attempts for the American government to just get a hold of Asian land and control their land and economies. They were scared of their own capitalist ideas being affected by lands far east. So what they did was commit mass murder in order to feel better about their insecurities. Around 2 million Vietnamese civilians were murdered in the war, that’s not counting any troops. 

“Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA) estimates that 2.1 million to 4.8 million Vietnamese were exposed to Agent Orange during the war and at least 3 million suffer serious health problems due to that exposure.78 According to MOLISA, over 365,000 Vietnamese veterans and their children and grandchildren have medical conditions attributed to exposure to dioxin” (Martin. M, 2012)

List of Agent orange diseases, (Martin. M, 2012)

It’s also terrible that everyone in America and online centers the sorrows and tragedy of the wars over the loss of America. Looking at articles and figures online, they always only talk about how many American lives were lost. But neglect the destruction and death that America caused. That gives a white-based perspective over who’s life really matters in these events. That the life of an American matters vastly more than a Vietnamese or Korean citizen. 

Not to mention that the implementation of US army bases around the world is a form of colonization. Putting political influence and the ability to kill people at any time is a form of taking up space in another country and thus, is colonization. U.S militaries take up power and erase people’s own influence in their own countries. As well as led to the erasing of cultures and peoples. Don’t even get me started on missionary trips.

U.S militaries being in other countries means that they can be used to alter foreign governments and cause conflicts just to better U.S gain.” But it is also absolutely a manufactured crisis, one that should be stamped with the label “made in the USA,” thanks to decades of Washington’s interventions in Central American affairs. Its origins go back at least to 1954 when the CIA overthrew the elected Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz. In the 1960s, dictatorships would flourish in that country (and elsewhere in the region) with US economic and military backing.” (Gordon. R. 2019)- referring to the Current Migrant Crisis Was Created by US Foreign Policy in Guatemala and South America 

So supporting U.S war veterans is supporting these same acts of war that cause genocide and colonization. Celebrating old U.S Vietnam war veterans is literally celebrating someone who would have shot or poured napalm on a child. U.S war veterans literally have done murder and atrocities- 

One could make the argument that the U.S military creates opportunities (like jobs or higher education) for a huge mass of racial and poor Americans. But then that shows predatory behavior. That the government preys on communities that they know have low access to resources for better life quality. And makes them risk their own lives and have help in bloodshed, in order to get ahead in life. Things they would have if they were financially well off, white communities. 

So whenever you celebrate a U.S war veteran, you’re celebrating a war criminal. The whole “praise” U.S war veterans thing is just a lie and propaganda from the US government to its citizens to make sure they don’t feel bad whenever it murders people abroad. It makes Americans feel like they’re a “good” force in the world and distracts citizens from actual problems harming them. The US government doesn’t even treat retired veterans well. So it’s not like their feelings are being fully reciprocated.

References and Citations

1. Michael F. Martin. Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange and U.S.-Vietnam Relations. Congressional Research Service. 22. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34761.pdf

2. Michael F. Martin. Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange and U.S.-Vietnam Relations. Congressional Research Service. 22. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34761.pdf

3. Gordon. R. (2019). The Current Migrant Crisis Was Created by US Foreign Policy, Not Trump. The Nation. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/central-america-migrant-crisis-foreign-policy-trump/

600 Self-reflection

It was overall a pleasure to have taken this course, truly. I think I learned a lot. I took this course because I wanted to learn more about racial discrimination, how to combat it, learn more about how land is used, tactics to use against space being used for white supremacy, and vocabulary to use when talking about race in institutions. And I feel like I learned what I wanted. I feel like this class was important to anyone living in New York City. Which is on Lenape land and is a city that was built by immigrant and BIPOC communities, which is currently being run by wealthy whites people.

I really appreciate how Mia was caring for our needs and struggles during this semester online. How she was able to adjust things efficiently and quickly too. She was always attentive and always wanted to check in on us. The breathing sessions were also great during this stressful semester. 

The themes of course were all so engaging to learn about. It was nice that there all centered around “space”, because that’s such a big thing when it comes to “race”. It dictates life quality and so many things. 

I always found the course materials really interesting to learn about. I always knew of them, but I got to learn more about the process of how they happened and how to comprehend their effects on people. The readings were always in-depth and never shied away from the tragedies that happened against BIPOC.

The syllabus always seemed handy and easy to comprehend. Goals and grading information was always detailed. The weeks were planned nicely and the diagrams were helpful in getting us to imagine what we were gonna tackle at the beginning of the year.

I think that the padlets were a nifty idea. There were a nice way to review what we learned and put our own imagination and creativity into expressing our thoughts on the subject. As well as creating space for group discussions and cultivating the feeling of shared, progressive opinions. I wish the order of groups who were supposed to make padlets or comment on them wasn’t so confusing. I would get changed from different groups for padlet making/commenting that it totally lost me at what to do so many times.

I really appreciate the quiz. It was nice that it was able to be done over a period of time. I felt like all the information in the quiz would have been way too much to memorize/know on the spot, especially during online classes and their huge workload. The way it was done also allowed for more fleshed out and quality answers that go in-depth, rather than rushed, unexplained ones. 

For the final project, I wish we worked on it more in the discussion classes. In those classes, we never really got to talk about assignments. Doing the final project was hard because it’s hard to do group projects online. Everyone has different schedules so it was hard to get consistent time to meet up, talk about the project, and get consistent progress done. It was mostly drifting g pieces of slow text messages. The discussion classes were the only times where everyone in the group would be online at the same time. I also wish the discussion class professors would schedule weekly progress objectives for the final project. Because it gets assigned weeks before, not at all in the following weeks, then Thanksgiving break, and then it’s suddenly due.

Overall it was nice taking the class. I’ll be taking away in-depth understandings of race and vocabulary to use when talking about race in the Theater world (the learning focus area).