Anonymous Letter to the Editor
From a service member in Vietnam
The Republican
(May 14, 1970)
Editors Note: Normally The Republican does not print anonymous letters to the editor. In fact normally we don’t print the publications that we receive when we are aware f who writes them but doesn’t want his name used in the article. But this letter was quite a bit different and the thoughts bear publication. We do know that he is a soldier in South Vietnam doing is duty to keep the free world free.
It’s strange to think of how a community can change in such a short period of time. When I get to thinking of what a great place Garrett County was and what sensible people were there when I left not so long ago, and when I read The Republican and hear what all is going on, it makes me wonder if there’s any hope at all for this world. I look forward to reading the paper every week, to hear the news of my home town, but when I read of all of this striking and violence going on it really worries me and makes me wonder. It just seems like that’s something you would read about from other parts of the country, but not Garrett County. I don’t really see how an example can be set by a grown man that carries on like a small child, that throws a fit every time he can’t have his own way. How can a man be so childish and go back to his own household and try to correct his children right from wrong and expect them to understand?
I guess you’ve figured by now that I’m overseas in the service. And not by choice. But what would happen if everyone who didn’t want to come in the service would just refuse. It wouldn’t be much of a world, would it? I know that this situation is just one of those that people aren’t really realizing what they’re doing, and I know that “good old Garrett Co.” hasn’t lost any of its traditions. And that is for being the best county in the States. It’s just that the rest of the world has got everybody confused. I know I’m gonna’ come back to the “old” Garrett Co.
This may not even be published because I’m nothing, except one of those people from the “younger generation” who doesn’t know anything. But I do know one thing, I’m in a strange place, doing strange things. And it’s to keep you all free. Is that the thanks we get over here?
–A confused young man