As I turn 75, thereâs no simpler way to put it than this: Iâm an old man on a new planet â and, in case it isnât instantly obvious, thatâs not good news on either score.
And I find myself looking at a world that, had you described it to me in the worst moments of the Vietnam War years when I was regularly in the streets protesting, I would never have believed possible. I probably would have thought you stark raving mad. Here I am in an America not just with all the weirdness of Donald Trump, but with a media that feeds on his every bizarre word, tweet, and act as if nothing else were happening on the face of the Earth.
If you had told me that, in the next century, we would be fighting unending wars from Afghanistan to Somalia and beyond I would have been shocked. If you had added that, though even veterans of those wars largely believe they shouldnât have been fought, just about no one would be out in the streets protesting, I would have thought you were nuts.
@dcjogger Happy Birthday. I am only a few years younger, and I certainly did not see any of this coming. Yet, I think Trump's tweets are a nice anodyne to the twisted press, and he keeps them hopping. He is better at raising issues and exposing the corruption than anyone else I can think of.
I too opposed the VN war, and all wars, but never thought the military/industrial complex would be so successful that they would sell their evil to be used so many places, while controlling many in congress and government. Very little of what passes for gov't makes sense these days, and the corruption is festering into the very health of the nation.
Our bloated and diseased gov't bureaucratic structures need to be dismantled until we get back to the primary purpose of gov't, and then that needs to be closely examined to determine what we can further reduce. Let the clerks and other bureaucrats go on welfare, for all I care. They have no marketable skills for the free market. They are minions of the predators, tax collectors, and abusers of their office. Any honest person would run from gov't employment, at all levels.
I think we are seeing the protests that could be expected from victims of gov't schools: they are not taught critical thinking or self-responsibility.
What are you doing to change things? At 75, you have time to make a difference. To know and not to act is not to know. Consider this a kind challenge. *<twinkles>*