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Mistake

By Michael Nelson

It was a hot spring day. The air was clear. The sky was a deep cobalt blue. It was strange that I was walking on Highway One and no one was in sight. It was strange that the only things moving were the distant palm trees. It was strange that it was so quiet. The only sounds were my feet on the pavement and my occasional sigh. It was so very strange that I made a mental note to myself to never forget this moment. That this would be a great way to begin a story...

NOTE TO SELF: remember the day you were hitchhiking to the war.

That very same April day that I was hitchhiking to the war...was the very same day a group of Vietnam veterans were marching on Washington chanting "Hey Nixon, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide." It was the day that John Kerry asked congress "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" Of course, my main thought on the day I was hitchhiking to the war was "is this going to be the place I die for a mistake?"

Just as John Kerry knew it was a mistake...we knew it was a mistake...there never was a doubt that it was a mistake. Everyone just wanted to live through the mistake, go home and do something different. Some didn't get to do something different...the mistake ended them. Some made it back...but the mistake crippled them physically. Some made it back...but the mistake crippled them mentally. Some made it back...but the mistake crippled them spiritually.

The definition of mistake is misguided or wrong. We're expected to learn from our mistakes...it appears that we haven't learned a thing.