Next Stop: Southeast Asia

The ability to recognize and empathize with different perspectives is an important part of our global competency.  To do that, it is important to understand how your own perspective has come to be.

When I was young, my friends and I liked to play soldiers and World War II was the theme for most of our imaginary battles.  Some of us would play Germans and others would play Americans.  I think this was because most of the popular movies and television shows at that timne were about World War II; a global conflict in which it was easy to cast the Americans as heroes and clearly victorious.

During one of our make-believe battles, one of the older boys on our block strolled rudely through our battle zone, with a condescending glare and said, “We’re going to Vietnam”.  Those words would echo in my mind for many years.  Of course, I had heard of Vietnam.  Walter Cronkite was on our TV sets every evening; keeping us up-to-date on all the world events including a daily count of Americans soldiers killed in Vietnam.  Until then, I hadn’t really thought about it but, from that point on, the face and voice of Walter Cronkite and Vietnam would loom over me; casting an uncertain shadow on the future.

I was 14 years old during the Mỹ Lai Massacre.  Three years later I registered for the draft.  We still had troops in Vietnam but, I would be off to college instead of that southeast jungle and in another three years, the “conflict” would be over.  Nonetheless, growing up in the sixties has greatly influences my perspective of that part of the world.  I now consider myself a global citizen.  I pride myself in my abilities to assimilate with other cultures and nationalities around the world.  But, there is something about this part of the world that still holds onto the perspective cultivated in my young mind during the sixties and early seventies.  I’m not sure how I feel about this new journey.  For sure it will be another great adventure to another part of the world but, I think it just might be an even more interesting venture into my own psyche.  As always, I am excited and eager to take off on another great adventure but, there is still the voice of a young boy inside me that is a little afraid.