Name: Gus Dotson

Social Justice Group: Veterans/Life After War

Date of Fieldwork: December 19, 2018

Name of Organization: New York Historical society

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: N/A

Type of Fieldwork: Museum Visit

What I did:

My group took the train to the new york historical society to see an exhibit on the Vietnam war. The exhibit talked about the politics and the direct actions going on in the war. We learned about everything from the anti-war movement to how veterans were treated when they came home to the fact that lots of those veterans had terrible PTSD afterward.

What I learned:

One thing I learned about veterans rights was that because many people were against the war many veterans didn’t receive that respect and help that they deserved just because some people held a grudge against the war. In addition, we learned about what the veterans experienced and what they had to deal with during and after the war

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned that there are many things that happen in war that people who haven’t experienced can’t understand so you can’t judge someone who had to experience that on their reaction or about how it affected them later on in life. Also, many veterans suffer from medical issues and so if our government put more money into care for those issues then there would be fewer veterans suffering from PTSD and other medical issues in our country.