Voices that Inspire

What inspires you from WFSU Public Media here is this week's voices that inspire. My name is Mary McShane. During the Vietnam War I was a college graduate. I would consider myself to be a peace advocate during the war. Many people think that the war was just all protesting, but in my mind at that time what we needed was peace. It's in 1976. I, um, somebody asked me if I wanted a job working with the refugee resettlement program in the lacrosse diocese. Lacrosse Wisconsin diocese. I worked with the refugee resettlement program, resettling refugees from Vietnam, Loss and Cambodia. That was very interesting. So I would work as a social worker with them. At the airport when they came in, generally the men came first and these people had been involved with armed forces. And their families came later. Some of the families had been split up. So I helped, you know, I was working with them helping find food, jobs, learn English. The stories they told me were the same stories that the guys coming back were telling me. The younger people now, I don't know what they're teaching about the Vietnam War, but I think it would be very interesting for them to talk to people that had actually been there and actually seen it and to talk to some of the refugee people who were there. That influenced me to always be behind the scenes, but enter to rest be more in policy. I started to think that the protesting is fine, but really what makes a difference are the people who set the policies and whether it's on any level. Discover more Vietnam stories at WFSU.org slash Vietnam. You're listening to Voices That Inspire, produced by WFSU Public Media and partnership with our local community.