permafrost Loc: Minnesota

This was sent to me via Slatts and AuntieE.. both among the best of OPP members..


There is no punishment severe enough!

https://militaryveteransofdisqus.org/traveling-vietnam-veterans-memorial-vandalized-with-hammer/

Traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial Vandalized With Hammer

Posted May 11, 2020 Old Jarhead, by Dan Doyle

For years, a copy of the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. has travelled around the country and set up in places where people who might never be able to get to D.C. could visit it and maybe get some healing and closure.

One of those traveling walls was recently given a permanent home in John’s Creek, Georgia. The John’s Creek Veterans Association has been working on the set up of the permanent memorial since last July, and was going to have a Grand Opening celebration on March 28, 2020, but the c****av***s p******c put the kibosh on that with the social distancing and stay at home requirements that were necessary to help control the spread of this deadly v***s.

The Association was shocked recently to find that vandals had keyed about half of the panels of the installation and had taken a hammer to some of the other panels. Such behavior is beyond contempt. No matter the “reason” of self-righteous bravado vandals may give for their actions, the t***h is that they are self-centered, insensitive cowards. These actions were done under cover of night. No courage there. One could imagine all kinds of righteous punishments for such actions
.
My first reaction to this is to hunt down and teach the i***ts a true lesson, from a Vietnam Era Veteran. But the story gets better.

But Mike Mizell of the Johns Creek Veterans Association is a much more centered and thoughtful individual than I am in this case. When asked about his feelings concerning the damage done to the Vietnam Memorial with its over 58,000 names of those who fell there in service to the nation, he responded, directing his comment to the perpetrator’s with, “You didn’t hurt the structure, you hurt people.”

When asked what he would like to see done to whomever did this he simply told the reporter that “he would like whoever did this to join them in cleaning the park and taking in the history it holds.”

Mike Mizell is clearly a man with some real moral character.

My respect for Mike Mizell knows no ends. I could never be as forgiving, or as calm as he appears to be here. To me, this is simply unimaginable.

It is a fact that when bad things happen to good people, the responses they give for their hurt reveals either the quality of their character or the lack thereof. Mike Mizell and the John’s Creek Veterans Association have every right to be angry about what has happened to this treasured memorial and how it effects Vietnam Veterans and their families, but Mizell’s response clearly shows that he and his fellow John’s Creek veterans are made of far superior stuff than that of those who did this to that honored memorial.

It is the action of our better angels not just to punish those who do wrong, but to invite and to challenge the wrong doer to turn away from their selfish actions, to pay the necessary recompense for their actions, and to learn how to grow into their better selves. Mizell’s comment is rooted in that kind of “better angels” kind of thinking.

The Veterans Site sends its support and its thanks to the John’s Creek Veterans Association and the Vietnam veterans of Georgia. We hope that the repairs to the John’s Creek Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall can be done quickly and that you will be able to have your Grand Opening sometime soon. We say, “Welcome Home” to all the Vietnam Veterans and promise to never forget all our brothers and sisters who gave their last full measure in Vietnam and whose names are inscribed on that wall.

Yes, I am livid at the wastes of oxygen that did this desecration.

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

Agree.

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

Execution...

With prejudice

OPP47-72

I can admire and commend Mike Mizell for his restraint in what he thinks should happen to/with the perpetrators of this criminal vandalism. I, however, couldn’t be that “forgiving” !!! If the vandals are ever caught, it would be MY opinion that they should be required to be financially responsible for all repairs to the monument, be on “probation” for 5 years, and be required to do the supervised maintenance of the monument for the next 5 years !!!! Actions have consequences and a simple “slap on the hand” won’t teach the vandals anything !!!!!

OPP47-72

I can admire and commend Mike Mizell for his restraint in what he thinks should happen to/with the perpetrators of this criminal vandalism. I, however, couldn’t be that “forgiving” !!! If the vandals are ever caught, it would be MY opinion that they should be required to be financially responsible for all repairs to the monument, be on “probation” for 5 years, and be required to do all of the maintenance (supervised) of the monument for the next 5 years !!!! Actions have consequences and a simple “slap on the hand” won’t teach the vandals anything !!!!!

Rose42

This isn't c*******t China.

Rose42

Good for him. I agree - the wrong doers should help with the cleanup. But they should pay for what they've done as well. Pay for the cleanup - at a minimum.

greenmountaineer Loc: Vermont

Mr. Mizall sure sounds like a level headed and admirable character. There are folks who got turned off by the Viet Nam War. I recall one history teacher who bragged that she would not teach about war in her American History class! Like sort of you get to 1774 and ignore the Boston Tea Party and the next lesson is 1787 and Madison is writing the Constitution! But these folks attack the wrong people. They take it out on the guys (and gals) who fought that war at the orders of people like McNamara, who before he died, admitted that it was all a mistake. This must have been a great consolation to the families and friends of the 58,000 kids who never got back from Viet Nam.

There was a good reason that the founders gave congress, the representatives of the people, the sole authority to declare war. During war, people's rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness are put in jeopardy. But if congress has decided that the danger to the Nation is serious enough to declare war, those individual rights are suspended so that the Nation can survive. A lot of politicians have forgotten that little detail over the past 75 years.

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

Who cares?

Execution of scum is universal...

Rose42

This is America. We don't execute people over destroying property.

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

Neither does China

Rose42

Of course they don't. They're a shining example of human rights.

Mike Easterday

I was thinking along the lines of hand removal of the vandals. Then they can think about what their hands did.

son of witless

The trouble is that likely the criminals will not be punished in this world. While they will be ;punished in the next world, unless you catch them, it is small comfort in the here and now.

It is a real shame they were not stupid enough to put their crimes on social media as some other vandals have done.

My suggestion is to expect this stuff in the future and to have security in place to catch the scum the next time it happens, which it will.

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

Good point--social media, some have actually done that..