Vietnam Archives » Lynda Waddington

07Apr 2019 by Lynda Waddington

Veteran facing deportation finds hope in Iowa’s presidential parade

Gazette Column

Manuel Valenzuela, a Marine who served in Vietnam in 1971 and 1972 and has been facing the possibility of deportation since 2009, is very happy his travels to raise awareness brought him to Iowa. “The people of Iowa came to me, shook my hand and expressed gratitude for my service,” Valenzuela told me by phone as he drove his message-wrapped recreational vehicle out of Iowa toward Chicago. “I was respected by so many good people, some even handed me money to help pay for fuel while I continue to spread the message about me, my brother and other veterans who are being deported by the very country they fought for and would still die for. Iowans told me to ‘keep it rolling.’” And while visiting with Iowans was rewarding, Valenzuela…

15Nov 2015 by Lynda Waddington

Let’s remember, mourn all changed by Vietnam

Gazette Column

No matter how personal or distant the connection, it’s difficult to reconcile emotions surrounding the Vietnam War. Several readers, many of them veterans and friends, reached out to me after reading a series of articles by B.A. Morelli published last month in The Gazette. The articles revisit the decision by a then-20-year-old Marion man, Steve Smith, to violate federal law and burn his draft card in a brief but very public display on Oct. 20, 1965. Reaction to these pieces in which some of those interviewed call for a memorial or some other public acknowledgment of Smith’s action has been predominantly outrage, confusion and disappointment. “I lost friends in Vietnam,” one man said, “and I still haven’t stood before their names on the national memorial. And now someone wants to…

17Aug 2014 by Lynda Waddington

Bittersweet balancing act of life

Gazette Column

In the summer of 1988, I was 20-years-old. had two years of college under my belt, and sneaked out of my parents’ house for the first time. The overstuffed car had 4-60 air conditioning — four windows down, traveling at 60 miles per hour. From the radio and years before a Rick-rolled meme, Astley pledged he was “never gonna give us up.” Laughter shot around like a pinball, lighting up faces in the darkness, and no one wanted to let it to fall through the flippers. Earlier that day, thinking how I was now a college woman and all, I informed my mother I’d be heading off to watch a movie. Unfortunately, I also arrogantly named the film: Good Morning, Vietnam. Only two subjects of discussion were prohibited in my…

13Jul 2014 by Lynda Waddington

Bring back ‘Iowa nice’

Gazette Column

Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba has drawn scrutiny and (to be blunt) nastiness for announcing organizations in the Quad Cities will help care for a few hundred of the roughly 52,000 Central American immigrant children currently detained in U.S. border states. The children — predominantly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala — have arrived without adults and, due to law changes signed by President George W. Bush as part the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization of 2008, cannot be immediately deported. “You can’t turn your back on kids, little children and tell them they must go back to Honduras and in many cases be killed. That’s wrong,” said Gluba, who is hoping the community will help care for some of the children while their cases work their way through an overburdened…

07Jul 2014 by Lynda Waddington

Measuring patriotism where it counts

Gazette Column

I was fascinated this week by a new patriotism survey of the states by a blog generally devoted to ranking U.S. cities and developing novel ways of looking at the real estate market. Then I read the criteria for the rankings. Patriotism was measured, said the MOVOTO bloggers, on the following criteria: • National Historic Landmarks per Capita • Veterans per Capita • Money Spent to Fund Veterans • Percent of Residents That Voted in the Last Presidential Election • People Who Google for American Flags to Buy • People Who List America as an Interest on Facebook [caption id="attachment_1762" align="alignright" width="500"] This infographic shows patriotism levels in the states based on information gathered from social media networks, historic landmark locations, number of veterans per capita and active voters in the…