Watching Ken Burns's documentary "Vietnam" there were some vignettes which spoke to me.
They made me think of George W. Bush talking about Abu Ghraib prison, where naked prisoner were made to form human pyramids, and he looked into the camera and said, genuinely distressed, "This is not who we are."
But he was wrong, this is exactly who we, or at least some of us, are.
One of the students killed by National Guardsmen at Kent State was a ROTC student, walking across campus to class, and his parents were deluged with letters from outraged citizens who told his parents he deserved to die for demonstrating with those Commie loving scumbag students.
They interviewed a construction worker in his hard hat after the construction workers had stormed down from a building they were working on with an American flag and slogged into a crowd of students demonstrating against Kent State and the bombing of Cambodia, in lower Manhattan, and the workers beat up as many as they could. I remember those guys, because I was there that day. He said he and his buddies were out there every day in the heat in the snow and rain working on buildings, building the country, and these wimpy, privileged rich kids are out on the streets with signs trying to tear the country down he's building up. It was straightforward class resentment.
Archie Bunker meets the preppies.
The construction workers charged our contingent from medical school but they did not reach me. They got taken down by some of my classmates. My classmates may have been privileged preppies, but there were some good athletes, some former wrestlers and football players and they gave as good as they got. Made the front page of the Daily News, in their white coats, pummeling the construction workers. You could look it up.
Burns has somebody reading letters to the jurors of the William Caulley trial, after he and his platoon shot babies, women, children at Mai Lai, letters saying he was justified. Polling after Mai Lai supported the massacre.
Polling after Kent State showed most Americans supported the National Guard shooting the students.
The police chief at Kent State, standing front of the troops, told the professor of Geology if the students did not disperse he'd have the Guardsmen shoot again. This was not some mob of ill trained terrified Guardsmen shooting in a panic. This was pre-meditated murder, condoned right up the chain of command.
This is, most definitely, who we are.
You ask who voted for Trump, who supports him still?
It's Nixon's silent majority, still out there, that malignant infiltration among us, who look pretty normal, who you'd never guess, until you talk to them a few minutes.
They made me think of George W. Bush talking about Abu Ghraib prison, where naked prisoner were made to form human pyramids, and he looked into the camera and said, genuinely distressed, "This is not who we are."
But he was wrong, this is exactly who we, or at least some of us, are.
One of the students killed by National Guardsmen at Kent State was a ROTC student, walking across campus to class, and his parents were deluged with letters from outraged citizens who told his parents he deserved to die for demonstrating with those Commie loving scumbag students.
They interviewed a construction worker in his hard hat after the construction workers had stormed down from a building they were working on with an American flag and slogged into a crowd of students demonstrating against Kent State and the bombing of Cambodia, in lower Manhattan, and the workers beat up as many as they could. I remember those guys, because I was there that day. He said he and his buddies were out there every day in the heat in the snow and rain working on buildings, building the country, and these wimpy, privileged rich kids are out on the streets with signs trying to tear the country down he's building up. It was straightforward class resentment.
Archie Bunker meets the preppies.
The construction workers charged our contingent from medical school but they did not reach me. They got taken down by some of my classmates. My classmates may have been privileged preppies, but there were some good athletes, some former wrestlers and football players and they gave as good as they got. Made the front page of the Daily News, in their white coats, pummeling the construction workers. You could look it up.
 |
| Notice the babies at 9 & 10 o'clock |
Burns has somebody reading letters to the jurors of the William Caulley trial, after he and his platoon shot babies, women, children at Mai Lai, letters saying he was justified. Polling after Mai Lai supported the massacre.
Polling after Kent State showed most Americans supported the National Guard shooting the students.
The police chief at Kent State, standing front of the troops, told the professor of Geology if the students did not disperse he'd have the Guardsmen shoot again. This was not some mob of ill trained terrified Guardsmen shooting in a panic. This was pre-meditated murder, condoned right up the chain of command.
This is, most definitely, who we are.
You ask who voted for Trump, who supports him still?
It's Nixon's silent majority, still out there, that malignant infiltration among us, who look pretty normal, who you'd never guess, until you talk to them a few minutes.
You are correct! The scariest/saddest part of the "Trump Phenomena" is not pathetic Donald Trump but rather the multitude of poorly informed citizens who support him (and the sycophants who surround him). Not sure what happened to 9th Grade Civics classes that we all once had but our current citizens seem to have little or no understanding of how Government is supposed to function and, worse, seem unable to recognize those who lie and distort consistently. One of the things you should learn growing up is to recognize BS when you hear it - that no longer seems to be the case. In fact, Fox "News" has perfected BS and is profiting from it. How Hannity has any credibility is beyond belief. Hard to see how all this gets reversed. Hopefully Biden stays healthy - if he runs in 2020 he will win!
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteYou may find some comfort in Ken Burns, "Vietnam." Watch that and you can see gullibility is nothing new in America.
One of the striking things about this series is the comments from the Vietnamese who fought the Americans and the other striking thing is the comments from the Americans who fought there and then came home to find themselves vilified.
Mad Dog