A couple of things occurred today. The first is finding an old "Out Now" button buried in a drawer of stuff. It is a button for a march that was against the Vietnam War and is dated Novemeber15, 1969. The Second item is that I have just finished watching a documentary on Daniel Ellsberg. For many that name means little if at all. Yet I had the pleasure in my life of being part of what is now quaintly called the democratic process to which Ellsberg was such an important figure.
By democratic process I don't mean the Norman Rockwell democratic process but more the "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" Patrick Henry kind of political process. I lived through those so terrible years of the Vietnam War. I had, fortunately, finished my gig in the Marine Corps so I was not fodder for that debacle. I did know in my heart that what we were involved with in SE Asia was at best folly (See also Iraq). I remember when Ellsberg got the NY Times to publish the "Pentagon Papers", those papers that gave away the game that our political leaders had been playing for some 40 years. (See also Wikileaks)
What distinguished those days from today is that in the end Richard Nixon was forced to resign and the war ended 9 months later. Today we are isolated because of our all volunteer army. An Army of those that are poor or misinformed and have to pay the highest price. We of coarse call them heroes because it covers our collective guilt at what we have become (See Abu Grahib).
I will never see another period like those days of Ellsberg. Our system has changed so that never again will hundreds of thousands will take to the street to let our "leaders" know when they are wrong. As a side note I don't consider the tea party as legitimate being that they are funded by corporations for cynical political gains.
Before I digress any further, let me end by saying that, if never again. at least I had the pleasure of seeing democracy work.
