As a black Vietnam vet, this post touched me to my core.

[jaysunb]

CROSS POSTING:http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141604622





I too had also been back in the world only a couple years when this happened and reading this brought back a flood of memories from that period of time in my life and in America.
The war was raging, people ( mostly kids ) were protesting in the streets, inner cities were on fire, leaders were being assassinated, J. Edgar Hoover and the Nixon administration were fighting a war against the citizens under the guise of restoring "law and order" and guys like Sherman Brown were being railroaded to death row by the dozens.

Reading this, I thought of how Brown must have seen his young world continue to explode around him. I don't know what his prior life before the military was, or what his experience in Nam may have been, and especially, what he may have experienced when he returned to the world. I wondered what his mental state may have been, when he did. Was he like many of us that returned from fighting a war abroad to another war at this place we'd prayed to get back to.

And then...44 years behind bars.

I wonder how many times during those years did he think of the euphoria he felt when he stepped on American soil and in the cold lonely jail cell did he recall all the dreams and plans he had made for himself when he GOT BACK TO THE WORLD !! Although he has spent years of man hours trying to exonerate himself, he STILL had to deal with everyday prison life and it's warlike level of anxiety. He had to wait the outcome of every court decision every day and night. I imagine him thinking about that girl he used to write and may or may not have hooked up with when he got BACK TO THE WORLD.

I wondered about his family. Knowing three generations have been born during his absence and the many that have died...particularly those that knew him best. Those that saw him off to war and those that welcomed him home, to another. The friends and family that wrote him and welcomed him home, but, came to believe that he may have committed a horrible crime and abandoned him. All that shit we talked in country about HOME. All those plans.....

Just let me get the fuck outta here and I'll show you.


I wonder what the future holds for my brother and how much time he'll have to GET BACK TO THE WORLD !! and what will he find when he gets here.

[sheshe2]

1. Powerful post, jaysunb.