Political Proclamations

Listening to the mainstream media, one would be led to believe that the nation is torn and divided more than ever before, national interests from abroad are at an all time low and that pollution or global warming will soon destroy the world. Those who would believe that, must be very young, never studied history or are very gullible. (In which case I have some swamp land in Death Valley for sale.)

I am not very old, well at least not ancient, and I can remember the race problems that were nightly on the news. When the national guard was called out to open several colleges in the south for blacks to attend, when fire hoses were turned on protestors and bus loads of people went to certain areas of the country to "march in protest" of certain inequities. When civil rights people were killed just because they worked to make known the truth.

I remember the news coverage of a place called "The Bay of Pigs" where freedom fighters died trying to overthrow a dictator, news coverage where tanks faced each other in Berlin between two super powers and I remember the President talking to the nation as he sent war ships to surround an island nation to prevent the addition of atomic weapons. (WMD's)

I remember well: streets filled with protestors to a war in Asia; students shot by our own national guard; Multiple city blocks set on fire in Los Angeles, CA by angry mobs; garbage rotting in the streets of NYC where city workers were on strike; extremely high crime rates in Miami, FL; thousands laid off from Detroit, MI and Wichita, KS and then facing double digit inflation with no job.

I remember when the French would not allow the US Armed Services to occupy bases on French soil and our Secretary of State asking if we needed to dig up the bodies of US service men who had died liberating the French people from German occupation too; occupation armies in Germany and Japan; US service men being taken prisoners by North Korea; terrorist attacks in Beirut; passengers being killed on airplanes and cruise ships.

I remember environmental hazards in the coal fields of KS, oil fields of TX, water ways of MI and MN; nuclear catastrophes of Three Mile Island and Cheranoble; pollution in Love Canal; medical catastrophes of philidomide.

Are things worse now than before? I don't think so. Just another news story, a way for the news people to influence the masses for those with short memories. The pen is truly mightier than the sword.