http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20091007/OPINION03/910070342/-1/SPORTS12
October 7, 2009
Iowa, and the nation, lost a courageous woman this month: Margaret
"Peg" Mullen died in LaPorte City last Friday at the age of 92. Her
name and her story will long be associated with a grim period in
American history when this nation was engaged in a pointless war that
turned ordinary people into crusaders against a government that lied
and covered up facts about that war.
Peg Mullen was one of those ordinary Americans. She was the wife of a
farmer in Black Hawk County. Gene worked at a Waterloo packing plant
and later John Deere to supplement the farm income. Peg had worked in
a number of jobs, but eventually stayed home to raise a family. She
and Gene had five children. The second child died at birth; the
eldest, Michael, died in Vietnam in February 1970.
Ordinary life ended for the Mullens on that date.
From that point forward, Peg Mullen increasingly became a voice
against the Vietnam War and the U.S. military. She did not accept the
military's explanations for how Michael died, and the Pentagon's
fumbling made her increasingly suspicious and angry. Eventually, she
became a crusader against war in general.
It was a powerful thing to watch a mother transformed into a force
for generals and politicians to reckon with. The Mullens' story
captured the imagination of the nation, in part through C.D.B.
Bryan's 1976 book, "Friendly Fire," and later a TV movie by the same name.
That war ended, and the nation moved on, but Peg Mullen's passion was
never extinguished. She demonstrated that in an interview with a
Register editorial writer in 2005 following news that the military
concealed the truth about the death by "friendly fire" in Afghanistan
of former NFL player Pat Tillman. "The military always misleads
people," she told us then. "I just wonder why they have to lie. War
is bad enough without covering it up."
Those sentiments are easier to accept today when cynicism about
government is common. But the American people were more willing to
believe what their government said 40 years ago. Peg Mullen, and
others like her, changed that by demanding the truth and refusing to
readily accept what their government told them.
Most of all, Peg Mullen put a compelling human face on the realities
of war for the families and friends left behind to cope when loved
ones are lost. Hers was an indefatigable spirit, a spirit that is
still needed as this country winds up one war, contemplates the
course of another and tries to find meaning in the lives lost in both.
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