Looking into the future

February 26, 2014

Yes, I know, I took a few days off, but I had begun to notice that I was not getting many questions about my early life - after hearing whispers for years which I thought I might help others to understand, so I am sifting gears to address those matters that concern me and hopefully add insight in the media.

I have spent the last few days watching TV and reading a number of the newspaper articles I have been accumulate, I have reached the conclusion - as a nation, as the world at large, we are going nowhere fast and it might seem, we are picking up speed.

Historians will tell you that as a nation, we seem to "live" between crises.  When one occurs, we tend to put our noses to the proverbial grind stone and -  as a result, we accomplish our goals and - in the process, every one seems to feel good.  Then, we tend to relax and the inevitable occurs, we discover another crisis.  I am not talking about the government, I am talking about you and me and our neighbors.

Now I understand, you will probably not agree with my assessment.   I did not expect that you would.

It's not your fault, that is just that we existed in the century in which we were born and raised.

First, there was the aftermath of the Spanish-American war, then World War I and World War II, and Korea and Vietnam and more recently, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I came to being in the early days of World War II and bought into the need to "support of our troops" against the evil intentions of Germany and Japan and it was good that we did respond as we did.

And then we did what "good" people are supposed to do.   While the rank and file of our workers were hard at work rebuilding our nation to meet future demands, while providing for their families, those in our government were active developing relationships with our former enemies.

Then, unfortunately, we decided to get involved in Vietnam for no better reason than to halt what we had perceived to be, the expansion of Communism.   What a terrible, terrible mistake.  You probably have not heard of such an accusation, but then you may have not attempted to discover why certain segments of our population began to demand a share of the pie that others seemed to be gloating over the fact, they were enjoying second and third helpings.  I heard that up close and much too explicit terms when I attempted to join the others who were protesting that war.

Having witnessed the hypocrisy involved in too many of our decisions in Korea, I stopped marching and started studying in earnest.

Then came Osama bin Laden and eventually, 9/11.   The events of Pearl Harbor would fade into the background as we realized the struggles would be more serious than anything we had known in the past.
This war would be fought with bullets and blood, but and even more destructive force would be loosed against us.  We may thing we have won the war on the battle fields, but we have not won the war that will be affecting our lives for generations to come.

It is being played out on the streets where we live as we watch those who were elected - by us, to represent us, wage mock warfare with empty accusations that their opponents are deceiving us and if we do not end this mockery, our nation will fail.   Nonsense!   This nation will no fail until those our forefathers identified as "We, the people" give in and give up.

That is what the election of 2016 will determine.  We have time to prepare.