How does it end?

[question everything]

Letter to the (CA) Press-Enterprise

How does it end?

Sometimes when I look in the mirror, I feel like I have been suddenly transported 40 years into the future, growing old in an instant. One day it was the Mamas and the Papas and Vietnam, the next it was some hip-hop guy and Iraq.

I sometimes feel that this can't be the real 21st century. It must be some alternate future created by some unexpected quirk. Maybe the election of Richard Nixon in 1968 or the failure of President Carter to respond to the Iranians in 1980 could have been the "branch point" that sent the world spinning off in the wrong direction.

I would like to think that there is a real 21st century somewhere where pollution, poverty and disease are going down, not up. One without either Islamic terrorists or neocons, where real space stations exist, along with colonies on Mars and yes, even flying cars.
Could some quirk in Richard Nixon's 1968 election have ushered in some alternate future for planet Earth?

One of my biggest regrets is that I will not be able to see how it all turns out. Will the erosion of the American middle class be reversed or will the country become, as my father predicted three decades earlier, the BRNA -- Banana Republic of North America, a country with a few very rich and the rest very poor?

JAMES ROLLINS BAILEY
Banning

From http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/letters/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_19_letters.1cde03fb.html

[wli]

1. not well

The price for the folly in progress now will be very, very high.

[IndyOp]

2. Really thoughtful letter - I have a lot of friends who

feel as you do. Thanks for sharing it.

Tip: You may want to use 'edit' to remove your name - I'm not paranoid by nature, but cautious.

:kick:

[question everything]

6. Thanks, not my letter

I do not write that well..

No, as I scan newspapers, mostly in SoCal, when I run into thoughtful letters, especially in otherwise conservative newspaper, I like to bring them over.

It won't take long for some rabid readers to threaten to cancel their subscription to the PE because it is being "taken over" by liberals.

[jimshoes]

3. Go back about 5 more years

around November 1963. This country began its slide towards the neocon wet dream of today when JFK was murdered in cold blood in front of the whole country. I will always wonder what kind of world we would be living in had that seminal event been prevented somehow.

[NEOBuckeye]

8. JFK's murder started it. RFK's murder finished it.

See my post below.

[Cleita]

4. Yeah, I thought we would be in a very different place at this time.

What a disappointment. This was a very thoughtful post. Thank you.

[bonito]

5. Theres hope

Because of people like you, and your in the company of many, so don't let your fire grow cold, more are coming every minute. there is nothing with out hope. Until my last breath. edit. I will join you, Robert Charles Armstrong Deltona FL.

[NEOBuckeye]

7. Bobby Kennedy's murder threw off history.

I think Kennedy was the "branch point" of which you speak. Had he been elected to the Presidency, he would have led both the U.S. and the world down a very, very different path to a much brighter future.

I don't know that with any certainty, of course. I do know that various elements, not the least of them being Nixon and Bush Sr. had a very real interest in seeing Kennedy "out of their way".

But regardless as to who actually killed him, I have a real sense that something else died with RFK, and America and the world have been very much worse for it.

[longship]

10. I agree.

MLK and Bobby.

Without Bobby's death we might not have had Nixon. Without Nixon, we certainly would not have Chimpster now, since many of the neocons came from Nixon, either directly or indirectly.

[longship]

9. My sentiments exactly.

I remember the 68 election like it was yesterday. Then, in 72, after Watergate hit, astoundingly Nixon was reelected. The parallels between our current situation and then surprises me more every day.

There are too many questions which I fear will never be asked.

Why haven't we as a country learned by the experiences of the Nixon era?

Why isn't there any accountability for the Chimp's reckless disregard of rule of law, both national and international?

How did we get into the situation where we are going to have to go through the same, painful process of removing a president against his will?

Why isn't there a vast outpouring against the neocons?

Why haven't the Democrats formed any meaningful opposition to the neocons?

I know that there have been answers to these questions posited here and elsewhere. But that is probably the most discomforting fact of all. It begs more important questions.

If we as a movement know the answers to the above questions,
Why do these issues remain unresolved?
What can we now do to resolve them?

And the most important question:

What conditions will facilitate the resolution?

We may need a larger shock to our social order or our country or world to wake us up. I shudder when I consider what magnitude of shock may be required. Considering the ineptitude of the neocons, I shudder even more when I consider the magnitude of shock which may be delivered.

[NEOBuckeye]

11. The 1960s were the first wake up call. The 2010s will be the second.

The 1960s were the years of modern humanity's first great awakening. It was a social/spiritual/cultural revolution that transformed America, threating the status quo powers that be, who were thoroughly horrified at the prospect of losing control over the people.

Their response? The murder of John and Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Medgar Evans and other leaders and heroes of the people, and a progressive, visionary new world. Their message? "Go back to sleep, and consume, consume, consume."

Nevertheless, many seeds were planted then, the outgrowths of which are still with us today: Spirituality, Environmentalism, The Peace Movement, alternative energy and food production, among other things. All of these things will be critical to our cause and our future once the second call sounds.

You will see a far more powerful, extremely high-stakes and potentially devestating revolution within the next decade that will force us to address and resolve the abuse of our planet and its natural resources.

Obviously, the "second awakening" will be much louder than the first.