But simply listing him is no argument. There is no such thing as collective virtue, either. This is a people which has been repeatedly victimized by the idea of collective guilt or taint. The hair stood up on the back of my neck when reading recent reports of Albanians blaming Gypsies for siding with the Serbs against them. They fall through the holes, and disappear.
War can leave scars that never heal.
Today I am happily married to a man of remarkable stability whose principal battles are with a temperamental supervisor and insulin-dependent diabetes. In 1990, my boyfriend was a brother motorcyclist who had fought in Vietnam in an area where defoliants were used. His battle with the Viet Cong was brief. Yet, no warrior has outfought metastasized lung cancer forever. His death was a quiet one in his adopted country, where the roads flow like rivers amid towering trees and great birds cry of the greatness of warriors.