Shell Shocked -WAR - Man's Inhumanity to Man - The Bright Side vs The Dim Side

The poem I have included here began when a friend asked the question, "What's the "Bright Side" of war ? I was determined to try and come up with one. And though I did manage to stumble through the poem I didn't manage to support any favorable position. Surely there must be something I had thought, yet I nearly had to admit defeat.

My unwillingness to admit defeat so easily sent me to archives around the web trying to find something, anything that could be construed as a good thing. Depending on the stance one takes I believe there is a way to accommodate most every position someone can take. This is just an infernal flaw that keeps me up nights, at odds with others and continues to teach me to be open to learning new ideas and expanding my horizons.

My first stop was to HistoryChannel.com which is someplace I have a love for anyway, so I can shamelessly promote it here. LOL If you punch WWII into the search box it provides a list of different topics you can browse, with interactive features that actually provide some interesting choices and different aspects than you may consider.

The G.I. Bill was the first thing to catch my eye. Established in 1944 this legislation allowed more than 9 million veterans from 1944-1949 to receive some $4 billion in education and training. By 1962 more than $50 billion in insured loans had been given away. However, much less used was the so called "52-20" club. Where returning veterans would receive unemployment benefits of $20 a week for 52 weeks (one year) and in fact 80% of this funding was never used.

Perhaps that says little on the surface but to me it says a lot. There was free money sitting there for those who didn't work and instead only one fifth of the population accepted that as an option while the rest went and made something of the opportunities a government insured loan afforded. Not only were funds available for schooling but the government subsidized mortgage loans up to 50% in some cases and lenders charged lower interest rates affording opportunities for families to spread out and inhabit this great country we live in.

Commonly known by the nick name "Rosie the Riveter" females were provided opportunities during the time surrounding WWII to enter the work force in large numbers. Previously considered incapable of handling the heavy workload required in many manufacturing positions and overlooked, women were able to prove their capabilities and have secured their place since. Continuing to expand in number 10% over the five years from 1940 - 1945 women grew from only 27% to 37% of the workforce.

For the first time in the military women were afforded full military status and the first female military aviators were given an opportunity to fly on behalf of their country. Perhaps these changes were inevitable, and affording "WAR" the privilege of using this as a positive aspect is skewed a little, but I did mention earlier I was finding supporting this position difficult.

Born back in the 60's I was definitely considered a hippy as a youngster. I wore my hair long, proudly sported frayed cuffs, on my bell bottom jeans,(decorated with peace signs LOL) and of course I dabbled with a green leafy substance known to be illegal.

Although for the life of me I have never understood why people treated Vietnam vets poorly when they came home I do remember a lot of the controversy of those days. Terms like  bush fighting; guerrilla warfare; police action; PTSD  and a host of others were introduced to the American vernacular.

It took years to turn the tide of public opinion and personal resentment for the war around and finally in 1982 the memorial dedicated to those fallen was officially opened 

The bright side to war is not everyone dies
despite the war mongers who give their best try
my dim view's affected by impassioned cries
of innocent victims left wondering why.

The bright side of war is it teaches mankind
all about the atrocities that he will commit
my dim view's because I am firmly resigned
despite all this cost he will not have learned shit.

The bright side is some day all these wars will end
when both lamb and lion can lay down as one
oh, this day is near, all the signals portend
my dim view is this has all been a dry run
for the great final conflict called Armageddon
when our Lord will pit satan, against His only son.

My dim view's that folks will refuse to believe
choosing to follow a blind, errant path
the bright side is that I wont be there to see
on the day that my God unleashes His wrath.

My dim view's that family and friends will be lost
by their utter refusal to look to the light
as lessons left unlearned, now finally cost
and nothing in this view could ever be bright.

Remember the term Shell Shocked  ? It isn't used as much these days because it has been replaced with P.T.S.D. (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) as a diagnosis. These days we get sticker shock, use Shock*  to treat the water in our backyard pools, or get the shock of our lives learning we are grandparents (okay, sometimes this isn't such a shock)  for the first time .

But rarely do you hear someone saying shell shocked anymore. I used it as a kid and remember others doing the same. Yet while the meaning may have remained the same, the name is different. No longer is a 1000 yd stare mean you are crazy but instead have a condition that IS treatable. Men returned from wars in the old days suffering from the tons and tons of high powered explosive shells that had bombarded their days and nights for years and we called them yes, Shell Shocked.

I have edited this post from when it first began. I originally posted the poem in a forum just to share something I had written. It was suggested I make a Hub from it. Personally I hope you will enjoy the poem as a piece of entertainment and maybe find something in its message to take with you. From the rest of the hub I hope you are informed in some way or maybe intrigued enough to view some of the other links and sites provided.

Did I ever find a bright side of war ? Nothing I really want to stand behind. Advancements in medicine, science, technology and even our ability to recognize invisible wounds as a direct result of the dim side of war show that we progress because of that need created by war's atrocities. But all in all I think the dim outweighs and bright ... what's your take ?