For most people, Memorial Day is primarily a time to celebrate the unofficial beginning of summer. But for me, it is a time to mourn all of those who have died in all the needless wars of my lifetime, particularly the 58,220 young men of my generation who were killed in Vietnam. For the last 58 years I think about Don, my good friend who gave me my love of folk music, and taught me how to play a guitar. He was killed by a sniper one week after he got there. He never got to know his 20 year old bride was pregnant with their son at the time. The child would only come to know his father through the stories told about him. 

As far as I am concerned, all the wars in my lifetime have not been worth a single human beings life.

This fuzzy picture is the only one I have of Don, but I think he would be pleased that this is the one that has hung on my wall ever since. He was doing what he truly loved to do.