A Prospective Look
This political year a lot is being made of the military records of both presidential candidates.
Maybe it is time to look at the country as it was then and what was going on in order to put into perspective what both men did, and why.
The 1960’s and early 1970’s were a very turbulent time in this nation’s history. A war in Southeast Asia raged with American youth dying daily. Two sides of the nation looked with opposing views. The war was needed or the war was evil and unnecessary. We had hippies, dippies and dropouts. There were drug havens and communes. There was free love and rampant hate. Young men running to Canada in order to stay out of the fight, university campuses under siege, riots in the streets, burning bras and draft cards, streets and houses a blaze. Families torn apart by malcontent or political ideology, some never to be reunited!
This nation was in trouble, big trouble from both outside forces and internal strife. Listen to the music of the times and hear just what the youth felt. Songs of peace, love and anti war, yet they and the nation saw the assassination of leaders like the Kennedy’s, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. Death and dying, in graphic detail, on the nightly news filled our living rooms. Our military, pelted with fruits and vegetables as they returned home or worse yet, being spat on for wearing the uniform of this country and called baby killer.
Our involvement in Southeast Asia really began with Dwight D. Eisenhower, a republican; believing the Vietnamese needed a little guidance to help make a democratic nation. John F. Kennedy, a democrat, sent even more men there to help with training the fledgling nation’s military. The war went into high gear under the guidance of Lyndon B. Johnson, another democrat: we had to win the war and stop communism from spreading. It was only under the presidency of Richard M. Nixon, a republican, who ended the war.
Wisdom and maturity are in short supply when you are young. Some see life as a way to have fun, an endless summer. Others believe they are immortal and can do anything they want. With time, all youth grow older and some, wiser.
With this short glimpse on the past, look, study and decide if the two men wanting to be the next president were honorable and honest about it. After that, look to what they have done to date and the issues they stand for. Decide which one is truly the person for the job.
Looking to the past is necessary to help understand the present and help shape the future. Living in the past will do nothing to benefit anyone.
Ed Williams
©
Maybe it is time to look at the country as it was then and what was going on in order to put into perspective what both men did, and why.
The 1960’s and early 1970’s were a very turbulent time in this nation’s history. A war in Southeast Asia raged with American youth dying daily. Two sides of the nation looked with opposing views. The war was needed or the war was evil and unnecessary. We had hippies, dippies and dropouts. There were drug havens and communes. There was free love and rampant hate. Young men running to Canada in order to stay out of the fight, university campuses under siege, riots in the streets, burning bras and draft cards, streets and houses a blaze. Families torn apart by malcontent or political ideology, some never to be reunited!
This nation was in trouble, big trouble from both outside forces and internal strife. Listen to the music of the times and hear just what the youth felt. Songs of peace, love and anti war, yet they and the nation saw the assassination of leaders like the Kennedy’s, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. Death and dying, in graphic detail, on the nightly news filled our living rooms. Our military, pelted with fruits and vegetables as they returned home or worse yet, being spat on for wearing the uniform of this country and called baby killer.
Our involvement in Southeast Asia really began with Dwight D. Eisenhower, a republican; believing the Vietnamese needed a little guidance to help make a democratic nation. John F. Kennedy, a democrat, sent even more men there to help with training the fledgling nation’s military. The war went into high gear under the guidance of Lyndon B. Johnson, another democrat: we had to win the war and stop communism from spreading. It was only under the presidency of Richard M. Nixon, a republican, who ended the war.
Wisdom and maturity are in short supply when you are young. Some see life as a way to have fun, an endless summer. Others believe they are immortal and can do anything they want. With time, all youth grow older and some, wiser.
With this short glimpse on the past, look, study and decide if the two men wanting to be the next president were honorable and honest about it. After that, look to what they have done to date and the issues they stand for. Decide which one is truly the person for the job.
Looking to the past is necessary to help understand the present and help shape the future. Living in the past will do nothing to benefit anyone.
Ed Williams
©
posted by Ed | 13:09
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