Name: Will

Social Justice Group: Veterans/Life After War

Date of Fieldwork: December 18, 2017

Name of Organization: New York Historical Society

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

Type of Fieldwork: Museum

What I did:

Our 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 people who hated them and called them baby killers.

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 by society and the government. The government is supposed to provide benefits to veterans coming home but because of the people who didn’t like the veterans. They decided that not all of them should get what they deserved after coming home.

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

We learned that there are many things that happen in war that people who haven’t experienced can’t understand what it’s like to have gone through such an experience, 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 a ton of veterans getting the help they deserve so that they can continue to live their everyday lives