The Straight Story (36,982 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
No more.
I am 46. When I was a young boy I remember seeing the news when folks returned home from Vietnam. Scattered memories of that time are still in my mind. I remember man walking on the moon (a brief memory to be sure of the TV, I was but a toddler). I still recall when I was small being in Byesville, Ohio, and seeing on the news that in Columbus (where I lived and we were getting ready to head home to) that the KKK was protesting, and being afraid.
I'm 52 and remember when my uncle came home from Vietnam. Had no idea what a war was. He did stop in Germany on the way home and got me a really neat Alice in Wonderland doll. I didn't pay a darn bit of attention to the news so would've had no idea about the KKK. I did, however, look forward to chicken fried steak day at school.
I didn't know who they were or exactly what it was they were protesting against except what I had heard the adults talking about. I knew it was about black people and such, but what it was all about escaped me.
I didn't pay attention either. Except they looked loud and dirty. Still, I could care less, other than seeing a few kids putting on disgustingly grubby and ripped clothing to be hippies for Halloween.
I grew up while Vietnam was going on, and the cold war. I feared the Russians, I caught glimpses of of the war and heard the songs my parents and others listened to but barely understood them.
My mom listened to The New Christie Minstrels, Petulia Clark (I loved the song "Downtown") and Elvis. Why would I fear the Russians? I was a kid, crap like that was irrelevant. I had ballet recitals and Barbie fashions to think about.
During my teen years I remember Reagan and the cold war more. I was always afraid of nuclear war and didn't get why we were all at 'war'. I played chess and met several people from the Soviet Union and they were just like me. The people, it seemed, did not want war. They didn't want to take over the US. They just wanted their own life and freedom to be themselves.
Even as a teen I didn't really have any concept of nuclear war. There really wasn't any "war" per se so what the heck did I care. I thought it was sad that people had to live in communist countries where they had no freedom and went hungry. But there were boys & rock concerts & gymnastics meets I was too busy to feel angst over something so far away from my life. I do remember gas lines, though because I'd just started driving then.
Time marched on. The threat of communists and the Soviets faded. The fear of the world ending in a nuclear holocaust subsided. Enemies became friends. The folks I had seen at chess tournaments who were once seen as political refugees were now free to go home, the iron curtain was now nothing more than a phrase that had more to do with the Steelers than the Soviets.
Thank you President Reagan! You changed the world and people who hadn't been free for decades could now make their own decisions.
It seemed as if peace might just have a chance. And then, there was a new 'enemy'.
Thank you, Carter for being such a *****! You allowed an Islamic extremist to become the leader of Iran and made the world more dangerous. I guess I shouldn't expect anything brave from a man who couldn't even fight off a bunny.
I remember laying with my son when he was just a toddler beneath a tree and looking up at the sky at one point in the early 90's. We were looking at the clouds and I was so thankful he was not growing up with the fear I had grown up with.
Really, if that's the only fear you faced, some vague fear far away and it still causes you angst to this day then you pretty much didn't have any problems growing up. I had the childhood from hell, while you were worried about a bunch of Russians I was just trying to get through the day. I guess that's what makes you so weak, you have to manufacture hardship and pain.
The same son who recently went to Iraq.
You should be proud of him...he grew up with bigger balls than you. Must not have spent a lot of time around you growing up. Probably had a real male role model.
I thought we had 'won'. The days of fearing that any day the Russians would launch a nuclear attack were over.
It was replaced with a new fear. Terrorists. A term we could apply to any action or any person or group.
Oh for Heaven's sake! Really? Don't worry so much your son and my son have your back. I doubt you'll be going to the middle east anytime soon so you won't be near any terrorists.
I grew up being scared of us being a war. Well, I guess I could say I grew up in fear. And that fear is still being peddled.
Now instead of having a common enemy we fought against - me and you are the potential enemies.
You're a suicide bomber?
Now we have wars without end, and even when one ends we are hearing that others need to start just to protect us from nations like Iran.
Iran is nowhere close to the old Soviets.
Yeah, I know, every time I turn around 0bama's starting another war! So much for that peace prize, huh?
And I say - No more.
We won. We have the mightiest military in the world. We spend the most of any country on earth on defense - yet we keep telling the people that we are not safe and need to spend even more.
Yeah, cuz everyone really cares what you think. Write your president...he's the one making the world less safe.
We have more enemies and fear than we have ever had. I still remember going to the airport to see my dad off on his business trips and there was no TSA. I did not fear my fellow citizen. Now I am told that we are all potential terrorists. I am told to fear me and you.
The new enemy is us, and everyone else.
Yeah I know, the TSA sucks! Just another bloated government department that collects union wages and does a piss poor job. Every time some newspaper or other organization tries to get through with some kind of contraband they're successful a good part of the time. Meanwhile, little old ladies are getting frisked so we can be "sensitive" and not be accused of racial profiling. I highly doubt my grandmother is going to hide a pipe bomb in her walker. I don't think she even knows what a pipe bomb is.
I thought we won. We didn't.
The RW is itching for a war with Iran, one which my son would be pulled into. I am told that now the world is worse off than it was - well I grew up scared that when I went to bed a nuclear missile was headed our way. That fear is gone. And here we are in the 21st century and my oldest son was sent to war - came home - and those on the right are trying to find a reason to send him to another one.
The RW? Are you serious? Look at your guy in the White House? All he does is launch bombs at independent nations, read pretty words off a teleprompter (even at a grade school...it's a good thing he didn't have to read "My Pet Goat", he'd probably have to look up from the book and read it from the TOTUS), campaign and throw class warfare bones to you guys. But you really worried about a nuclear missile was gonna hit you? What kind of parents did you have that filled your head with that crap. No wonder you're so pathetic. But hey, don't worry about it, your son can handle it, else he wouldn't have enlisted.
No more. No more wars from fear. No more killing families in countries far away out of fear that those people might invade us.
But you repeat yourself! Poetic emphasis, I guess.
You tell me that Reagan won the cold war, made us safer - and then you tell me that it means nothing and you send our kids to war.
My grandkids are at about the same age as my son was when I thought we were done with it all. Now my greatest fear is not that the soviets will attack us - but who we will attack next in the name of 'peace'.
Whose this you? Your guy is in charge...why don't you hold him accountable and protest for him to pull troops out of all these different theaters, especially the ones he got us in. But last time I checked, we have an all volunteer army. Your son is serving because he wants to, so suck on it. Sheesh! What a whiner!
Cindie
