[Rhodes22-list] (no subject)

[Jay Friedland]

Just received this,worth a good read...

"Anybody got Sean Penn's and Woody Harrelson's email addresses?"


If you haven't read James Bradley's book, it is well worth your effort.
There are more than a few places that will effect you the same way this
email should.  Enjoy.

A little history to think about for all you war-mongers out there.


The text below was posted on The Hive. Well worth your time. What to you
think Sean, Woody, and Barbra would have to say about these military
warmongers?

Each year I am hired to go to Washington, DC, with the eighth grade 
class
from Clinton, WI, where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly 
enjoy
visiting our nation's capitol, and each year I take some special 
E-memories
back with me. This fall's trip was especially memorable.

On the last night of our trip we stopped at the Iwo Jima Memorial. This
memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of 
the
most famous photographs in history-that of the six brave soldiers 
raising
the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill on the island of Iwo Jima,
Japan, during WW II.

Over one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and headed
towards the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at he base of the 
statue,
and as I got closer he asked, "Where are you guys from?" I told him 
that we
were from Wisconsin. Hey, I'm a cheesehead, too! Come gather around
Cheeseheads, and I will tell you a story," (This man was Mr. James 
Bradley,
who just happened to be in Washington, DC, to speak at the memorial the
following day). He was there that night to say good night to his dad, 
who
has since passed away. He was just about to leave when he saw the buses
pull
up.

I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and received his permission to share
what he said from my videotape. It is one thing to tour the incredible
monuments filled with history in Washington, DC, but it is quite 
another to
get the kind of insight we received that night. When all of us had 
gathered
around he reverently began to speak. (Here are his words that night.)

My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin. My dad is on 
that
statue, and I just wrote a book called Flags of Our Fathers which is #5 
on
the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the 
six
boys you see behind me. Six boys raised the flag.

The first guy putting the pole in the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon 
was an
all-state football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the
senior members of his football team. They were off to play another type 
of
game. A game called War, But it didn't turn out to be a game. Harlon, at
the
age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't say that to 
gross
you out, I say that because there are generals who stand in front of 
this
statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need to know that most 
of
the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old.

He pointed to the statue, you see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from
New
Hampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was
taken,
and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a 
photograph---a
photograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection,
because
he was scared. He was 18 years old. Boys won the battle of Iwo Jima. 
Boys.
Not old men.

The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike 
Strank.
Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the
"old
man" because he was so old. He was already 24. When Mike would motivate 
his
boys in training camp, he didn't say, Let's go kill some Japanese or 
Let's
die for our country. He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he
would
say, You do what I say, and I'll get you home to your mothers.

The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from
Arizona. Ira Hayes walked off Iwo Jima. He went into the White House 
with
my
dad. President Truman told him, You're a hero. He told reporters, How 
can I
feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only 
27
of us walked off alive? So you take your class at school.  250 of you
spending a year together having fun, doing everything together. Then all
250
of you hit the beach, but only 27 of your classmates walk off alive. 
That
was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes died
dead-drunk, face down at the age of 32...ten years after this picture 
was
taken.

The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop,
Kentucky. A fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is now 70, 
told
me, Yeah, you know, we took two cows up on the porch of the Hilltop 
General
Store. Then we strung wire across the stairs so the cows couldn't get 
down.
Then we fed them Epsom salts. Those cows crapped all night. Yes, he was 
a
fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. 
When
the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the
Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his 
mother's
farm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into the 
morning.
The neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.

The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue is my dad, John
Bradley
from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994, 
but he
would never give interviews. When Walter Cronkite's producers, or the 
New
York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say, No, I'm 
sorry
sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing.  No, there is no phone
there, sir. No, we don't know when he is coming back. My dad never 
fished
or
even went to Canada. Usually, he was sitting there right at the table
eating
his Campbell's soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out 
fishing.
He didn't want to talk to the press. You see my dad didn't see himself 
as a
hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo 
and
a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from 
Wisconsin
was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they 
died.
And when boys died in Iwo Jima, they writhed and screamed in pain.

When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was 
a
hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, I
want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who
did
not come back. Did NOT come back.

So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo Jima, 
and
three came back as national heroes. Overall 7000 boys died on Iwo Jima 
in
the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving
out,
so I will end here. Thank you for your time."

Suddenly, the monument wasn't just a big old piece of metal with a flag
sticking out of the top. It came to life before our eyes with the 
heartfelt
words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a hero. Maybe not a
hero
for the reasons most people would believe, but a hero none-the-less.

"Let her and falsehood grapple.
Who ever knew truth put to worse
in a free and open encounter."
                                          John Milton, "Areopagitica"