When I was young,
I think I can, I think I can, said the little train. We were on our way to the moon. Viet Nam was becoming a big issue. The Cuban Missile Crisis made Détente an attractive option. Civil Rights were in the forefront of politics. The war on poverty had been declared. Medicaid and Medicare were being implemented. Walter Cronkite read the news.
America stood for prosperity, freedom and democracy. The Soviet Union was our ideological enemy, The Cold War was Frigid. Capitalism versus Communism, and Freedom versus Oppression, framed the struggle between good and evil. America was good, and Communism was evil. Food lines, censorship, state run media, rigged elections, godlessness, Soviet daycare and spying were all bad. America had democracy, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, prosperity, two cars and a tv, all because of freedom.
WE celebrated our founding fathers as freedom loving patriots. Give me liberty or give me death. We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately. The words of Franklin inspired the youth. We pledged allegiance to a flag that represented one nation under God. Our founders were portrayed as heroes. Men of virtue that risked their lives, in pursuit of the blessings of liberty.
Our nation was celebrated around the world for our ideals. The French gave us a statue. Emma wrote a poem. People left their places of birth and risked their lives, to escape the caste cultures of their homelands. America was the land of opportunity where people from anywhere could build a better life through hard work and ingenuity. The echo of Horatio Alger. Rugged individuals that were self-reliant and honest. The melting pot. America was the greatest country on earth. When I was young.
Great but not without Strife. Ban on school prayer, I have a dream, JFK shot in Dallas. Voter demographics, Malcolm X shot, The Watts Riot, Civil Rights marches. Draft dodgers, Batman & Robin, Star Trek, the war rages, Julian Bond seated, Muhammed Ali, Apollo 1 fire, Westmoreland speaks, Colorado legalizes abortion, students seize buildings. Britain applies to EEC, Robert Henry Lawrence, Newark race riot, Memphis race riot. Nuclear tests.
Then came the Tet Offensive. MLK assassinated, RFK rest in peace, the trust fund was violated. Johnson did not run. Nixon returned. Back channels were established. Apollo 11, Mary Jo Kopechne, Woodstock, Kent State, environmental regulation. The war on drugs, Pentagon papers shed light, goodbye to the gold standard. Wage and price controls were implemented, oil was embargoed, Gas lines were long. Nixon goes to China, Re-election, Watergate, Roe V Wade, Saturday Night Massacre (BORK), an end to the war. Stagflation, more détente, impeachment.
Gerald Ford, Nixon pardon, kids return from Canada, US evacuates Viet Nam, lost war. Jimmy Carter, Human rights, Vance and Brzezinski, malaise, Camp David Accord, China normalized, test tube baby, hostages, Volcker, Salt II dies, boycott Olympics, CNN. Voodoo Economics, Ronald Reagan, the problem not the solution, John Hinckley junior, lady justice, Nuclear Freeze, Social Security reform, Star Wars, Evil Empire, Grenada, Atlantis, Challenger, S&L Crisis, Tax Cuts, Borking, Reykjavik, Iran Contra, Star Trek Next Generation, tear down this wall.
Gary and Donna, Dukakis, HW, read my lips, reunification, Milken, Just Cause, government shut down, tax increases, Gulf War. High tech lynching, Ross Perot, Slick Willy, it’s the economy stupid, 43%, Hillary Care, Mount Carmel, Ginsburg 96 – 3, tax hike, NAFTA, Contract with America, Republican House, the rise of GMO’s, Peace Dividend, Star Trek Voyager, China applies to WTO, we must secure our borders, tax cuts, Space Station, definition of is, balanced budgets, Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, Kyoto, Lewinsky, aspirin factory, OBL, Dotcom bust.
Compassionate Conservative, Tax cut, 9/11, Patriot Act, China enters WTO, Enron, War on Terror, WMD, Guantanamo, McCain Feingold, tax cut, Plame Affair, big spender, where are they? Medicare Modernization Act, Facebook, Abu Ghraib, Saddam on trial. Libby indictment, Twitter, Fox News Channel, Speaker Pelosi, the surge, Climate Change, Housing Crisis, Lehman Brothers, not on my watch, Tarp. Palin, immoral deficits, Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, the time is now.
Income inequality, women’s vote, pride, fundamental transformation, end of racism, hope, Russian reset, 51 votes, Sotomayor 68 – 31. Scott Brown, Obamacare, deficits, new normal, Kagan 63 – 37, speaker Boehner, last shuttle flight, 47 percent, illegal amnesty, give us our cold war back, not wittingly, Snowden, Isis, Benghazi, the video, pen and phone, JV team, Crimea, GMO 2, Hillary, Clinton Foundation, the server, too unstable, lock her up, boys/girls ?, LBGTQ, marriage rights, MAGA, spying, no reasonable, Wikileaks, Trump wins. COLLUSION.
Goodbye Flynn, recusal, nuclear threat, hello Rod, Gorsuch, Goodbye Comey, welcome back Bob. No repeal or replace, #MeToo, waiting on that wall. Fake news, that pesky dossier, something is amiss, tax cut, end ISS funding, booming economy, Singapore Summit, check out your 401K, blue wave, red wave, abolish ice, Kavanaugh.
Mid Term disaster, and here we are. Recounts, won’t concede, investigations, racist, Nazi, danger to our democracy. Caravan, open borders, will of the voters, who is running. Free education, free health care, Handouts to Bezos. Democrats spend more money. More Schumer, More Pelosi, more lies. More government will fix it?
Upon reflection
History is made every day. What is reported frames the narrative. What is ignored is a matter of choice, who decides is a mystery. What is hidden is ignored. Public opinion is shaped by those who inform. The free press is not necessarily the objective press. A battle between carrier groups is obtainable for documentary. AS were B-52 bombing raids.
Technology has redefined the battlefield. Nuclear Submarines, stealth bombers, meta data, FISA abuse, cyber Attacks and drone strikes. The world is more interconnected. Information is managed and presented in careful scripts. Classified is all too common. What lurks beneath the surface? Should we know? Should we care?
The war on poverty was never won. The war on drugs failed. The war on communism has turned us towards socialism, this begs for a reflection back to Eisenhower and Kennedy infiltration not invasion. The Civil rights Act did not eviscerate discrimination. Social security is not trusted. Medicare and Medicaid did not insure a healthy nation.
Opioids do not cure pain. They do create dependency. They mask the underlying problems while temporarily making you feel better. The addiction may kill you.
It appears that all the great progressive initiatives have not cured the targeted societal ailments. Nor has a massive military eliminated threats from outside. In some sense, it is the defense infrastructure that poses an insidious threat from within.
We no longer trust our institutions. We no longer trust our press agencies. WE no longer trust our ideals. And still, we vote for more of the same. Opioids can kill you, they are addictive. The recent midterms highlight the American epidemic.
A lot has happened since 1964. No more duck and cover. Kennedy was killed before I was born, yet people often speak of Camelot. Perhaps it is normal to reflect on history through a rose-colored lens. Conceivably the 60’s were our greatest economic decade. The economy was roaring, we reformed our society, provided for all, on the backs of our posterity. Now we have participation trophies.
Harken back to this saying. No taxation without representation, and apply that to our children. Are we a moral people to deny the unborn the right to self-determination? What of equality for the unborn? What of the immorality of unaccountability? Reflect upon the wisdom of our founders in terms of understanding bureaucratic aggrandizement? Yet, we who know more today, are afflicted with everything they predicted back then. Indeed, they were visionaries and had the wisdom to call it, an experiment in liberty. Liberty seems to be a word almost removed from our Lexicon.
Two constitutions drafted in 1789. One in Philadelphia and the other in Paris. One led to Napoleon the other to Washington. One drafted for liberty the other for equality. One has lasted more than 200 years, the other less than 2 years. History teaches us to be wary of those that preach equality. Others identified, we are all equal in Liberty.
He was also president of highly influential Federal Reserve Bank of New York from the beginning of Carters term.