A few days ago I watched the movie "Bobby". I don't remember ever seeing it before. If I did, it was before I abandoned the Republicans, (or they abandoned me) I probably didn't give the movie the attention I did this time. While it wasn't the best movie I have ever seen it did a fine job of portraying details of that day in September 1968 when RFK was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It emphasized the shock that Bobby Kennedy's assassination had on the nation. It was especially shocking to the liberal hopes of change for justice, peace and unity.
My oldest son was in the Air Force in Vietnam in 1968, and it was a bad year, not only for me, but also for the whole country. The Vietnamese TET offensive in January was the turning point in the war and started a reversal in our fortunes there. Martin Luther King was assassinated in April, and Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in September of 1968
Both Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy had the same goals of justice, peace and unity for America. In that election year of 1968, there was an even stronger longing for justice, peace and unity than there is today, yet here we are forty years later with those goals still beyond our grasp. Thousands of our sons and daughters have been killed in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan because King and Kennedy had no chance to implement their visions for change. If they had, perhaps the radical Muslims wouldn't have come to hate us so much. If we had become the nation that King and Kennedy wanted to make it, perhaps the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the thousands of people in those buildings, would not have been destroyed. If we had a reputation as being a peace-loving country, not greedy for the natural resources of others, the have-not countries might not be so much against us.
When I was a child, between the two World Wars, I remember the cause of war was laid at the feet of war profiteers. Think about who it is that benefits most from war. Off the top of my head comes the names, Halliburton and Blackwater, but there are hundreds more. Any company that manufactures war-materials, weapons, or contracts to perform military services, benefits from war. But it is those big international corporations who have the most money and clout to make things happen who are to be suspected first of war mongering. Greed is a human trait and war profiteering probably began when some enterprising supplier figured out the money he could make in the first big wars probably about six or eight thousand years ago.
Words are the first weapons of war. Take the word ‘liberal' for instance. It has taken on the connotation of something to be sneered at. Yet the first meaning given in the Webster dictionary is ‘not stingy'. The Webster Thesaurus goes on to include the synonyms: openhanded, unselfish, bountiful, benevolent, generous, kind, tolerant, open-minded, reformist, advanced, and unbiased. I don't see anything to be ashamed of in any of those meanings. To me the words describe the attributes of a good Christian.
On that note let's see what the Webster Thesaurus gives as synonymous for ‘conservative'. They are: traditional, reactionary, conventional, moderate, unprogressive, unchanging, stable, timid, taking no chance, die-hard, old line, hidebound, careful, and in-a-rut. As a noun, a conservative is synonymous with: right-winger, preserver, die-hard, champion of the status quo, opponent to change, Tory, Whig, Bourbon, Federalist, John Bircher, Reaganite, old fogy, moss-back, Neanderthal, and more.
So why do Republicans use the word ‘liberal' in a sneering, derogatory way? The definition of a Liberal sounds like a person Jesus would have been proud of. So why do the Republicans think Democrats should be apologetic about being Liberals? We are not! We are proud to be Liberals! We are proud to care about our fellow human beings. Just because a person is down on his/her luck, doesn't mean he/she is automatically a worthless lazy person. Yet I read that definition just yesterday in an opposing comment on a Gather article favoring a liberal viewpoint.
Words are strong ammunition to fire up people to the point that they are mad enough to lie or cheat or even kill the opposition. War profiteers know that, and how easy it is to set a conflict into motion. There are always people who get fired up fast, declare it is a matter of pride, and march off to war without realizing they have been manipulated into it.
Then are people who love their country, but love their fellow man more, and won't fight a war until all possible diplomatic efforts have failed, and the enemy has made the first move. Still others won't abide a war on any terms. That sounds like suicide, but some peaceful countries have made it work by absorbing the invaders and converting them to their own culture. That is a long process that leaves many innocent people dead before the better times come. Most people don't have the patience for peace under those circumstances.
Other verbal weapons of war are the accusations of the pro-war people against the pacifists. They call the pacifists timid, and unpatriotic. Yet sometimes it is more patriotic to be in opposition than to go along with the sheep-like majority. The thing that makes this republic style democracy work for America is that our Constitution forces us to use words to compromise on issues. Each side has to give in a little to make government work. Words can move us to go to war, but words can keep us from it, or make a settlement after one side or the other has been declared the victor.
At the same time we should take more notice of the advice of former presidents and lawmakers - such as not ‘joining in any foreign entanglements' and ‘walk softly and carry a big stick'. That's harder to do in this industrialized, and globalized world. But we should never go to war alone without the advice, consent and participation of our most respected allies. We don't always know best, because in spite of modern digital communication, all of us Americans are not fully or honestly informed about world affairs.
I'll get down off my soapbox and stop musing on the what-ifs of forty years ago. We have a new set of problems, but they look very much like the old ones. We have another chance to get the country on a new and better track in November by voting in a new regime under the Democratic leadership of Barack Obama. I hope we can do it this time.
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Comments: 26
(That it mirrors my own opinion is a heart-warming affirmation - a plus.) I just finished watching Ghandi, part 1... There are ways to make peace, not war, that allow our children to live, and allows our grandchildren to get to know their parents. Not all the orphans of the war live in Iraq. We tend to forget that.
You can clamber up on that soapbox any-ole-time, as far as I'm concerned. We need more soapboxes, (people who think before they speak); we need more town meetings (maybe without all the politicians???) and clean and clear communication (which we're starving for.)
So, Ruth, Write On--and Write Often.
Blessings (from another out-of-demographic, "liberal" white woman.)
Obama/Biden '08
Wilka
It's a good reminder to remember the origin of the label we claim. Those are the ideals that we stand for and strive for in everything we do.
I've lived through many elections and I don't remember ever seeing the level of vitriol that the Republicans have been throwing out this cycle. It's gotten to the point where I see them foaming at the mouth.
I hope we survive this mess and come out the other end with a whole and cohesive government.
You are the best writer on here and I'm always happy to see one of your pieces.
Donald what is it we do now? We sell arms to countries that have radical leadership and then make more profit by attacking these same countries in the name of human rights which is nothing but a con by the wing nuts that think of only profit and nothing of the murder and suffering they bring to the rest of the world.
After WWI the public in America had control of the government at least in most ways and when WWII broke out the public said no more fighting and killing our own people over European aggression. America stayed out of the war until it was attacked even though FDR wanted to enter the war sooner.
After WWII every war fought by America has been about corporate profit and control.
Its also notable that the Bush family even back then were making vast profits supporting Hitler and were as guilty as Hitler of war crimes because of the chemicals they supplied Hitler with to gas 11,000,000 innocent people besides supplying the steal for the German war machine.
Today we see the same thing going on with the Bush family and they are being allowed to get away with it now just like so many years ago.
I believe their is more to America than war mongering and war profiteering and we need to do something different like make a meaningful push for peace in the world and not look for so many ways to destroy the world.
The only enemy America faces today is our political war mongering politicians.
In a perfect world, there would be no war, but humans are programmed to go through the fight or flight process before they get into a negotiating mode. Maybe when we wipe outselves out to extinction our Creator will replace us with a new improved, less greedy, more cerebral kind of being that will find better ways of settling disagreements than by killing each other.
It is a shame what happened to him, and I think he probably would have made a fine President.
Thanks for your thoughts.
World peace as well as inner-peace comes from understanding others and this will never be achieved by quoting a thesaurus to assign virtues to ourselves and vices to others.
I looked up the word conservative in Roget's Thesaurus found the words: discreet, moderate, reasonable, restrained, and temperate.
I too found the word "tolerant" associated with the word liberal. I suspect that soon we may see a footnote suggesting this is sadly no longer the case.
The movie, Bobby, came out about a year ago. I have yet to see it, but it is a very important movie.
(changing the ending now...) Still others...Invade a country that has not made the first move against America, they INVADE the country next door. All the while telling us that they are "fighting for peace."
My heart hurts when I read the comments made by Jack E. above. So sad that we've let this happen this way.
My head hurts whenever I see Donald's comments. Nuff said, you know why.
Forgiving ignorance and burying bigotry are my new "November '08" catchphrases. It is what I'm going to practice every day till January, 20, '09.
Wilka
The comic notion that some rich person like The Simpson's Montgomery Burns is wringing his hands with delight over plans go to war is a half a century out of date. Today, the primary beneficiary of the largest share of corporate profit is civil servants, like your child or grandchild's third grade teacher.
Ruth, in your home state of California, CALPERS, the civil servants retirement fund owns $27 million worth of KBR stock.
As for Haliburton, the larget individual investor, David Lesar, owns a mere 961,003 shares of stock. The largest institutional investor, Fidelity Investment owns 42,809,080 or $2.1 Billion worth of stock. Fidelity in turn is mostly owned by pension plans throughout the nation.
If we add up the top 100 individual investors in Haliburton we still get a smaller share than the 10th place institutional investor - a pension fund.
It is time we retooled our thinking.
To borrow the tone of Jack's Bush Family history analysis, let's look at the "Peace Movements" history during the lead up to WWII. The movement strongly opposed U.S. intervention when the Russians and Germans were systematically slaughtering civilians in the wake of their coordinated attack on Poland.
It is only on the afternoon of the invasion of the Soviet Union that the "Peace Movement" instantly reversed its position and began to lobby for war rather than peace. This was a full six months before Pearl Harbor.
In later years, the "Peace Movement" was able to mass millions of people to demonstrate against the U.S. action in Vietnam and Iraq but never fielded a single demonstrator to oppose the Soviet Invasion of Hungary, Czechoslovakia or Afghanistan.
Personally, I have been waiting for years for someone to offer a rational explanation for this.
The profit from Haliburton, Blackwater, KBR goes to the people who own stock in those companies, andt those people are us. I find it odd that activists get upset at Haliburton, Blackwater, KBR without getting upset at the third grade teachers who are pocketing the profit in their pension fund.
As for prosecution. I would hope that anyone who breaks a law faces the consequences.
I would also hope that those "peace" activists who gleefully profited from what Saddam stole from the Iraqi people face similar consequences.
It seems to me that giving economic advantages to big business under the theory that what is good for business is good for the country - a trickle down effect that no longer works within our country. Companies may own factories in foreign countries, and the foreign workers are the ones who would possibly benefit as the company got richer. Their benefits would likely be minimal because cheap labor is the reason for sending the work offshore in the first place.
I don't pretend to know much about the intricacies of global economics, but this is what seems likely to me. The more the population grows and jobs become scarcer, the more social unrest the world will have and the more envy and resentment tha can turn into terrorism and war.
I don't see any cure for the situation until the playing field all over the world has been leveled, if that can ever happen. Then the American lifestyle will end up way down the scale. I think our country has seen it best days, unless some American genius comes with a spectacular new source of energy and creates a new basis for our economy.
Are the teacher's of California taking responsiblity for the fantastic wealth of their pension funds? Do you know they have over $800 Billion in one fund alone?
I can tell you that they are making some efforts.......but there is a long way to go.
As for profiteering. Haliburton and KBR are profitable, but not THAT profitable. The average investor if given the choice between Haliburton and investing in a suburban Toyota franchise --- would take the car dealerships.
Why?
Look at their margins.
I agree 100% on that one. :)
What is the oversite provided for these operations, the General Accounting Office did their job and reported the loss, waste, and corruptions of this war. But those on the oversite committees both Republicans and now Democrats have done NOTHING to represent the people and the large losers, the troops. What could these administration DO that would finally get the attention of those who are supposed to be watching out for the interests of the people of this country, both civilian and military?????? Apparently that has not been done yet.
Someday we will all pay dearly for not having stood up for the cause of truth and justice when we had the chance. We are currently reaping what we have allowed to be sowed.
Is the general public not aware that housing on base is being turned over to private corporations to refurbish and supply base housing for our troops and their families AT A PROFIT after leasing the land on the base from the Pentagon?
This selling and giving away of assets belonging to our federal government and therefore our taxpayers is going on right under our noses while we debate Sarah Palin's hairdo. Will we wake up before it's all been signed over to the greedy bastards who are right now demanding to be saved from their own fiscal short-sightedness.
It's just unbelievable that a handful of fanatics with two commercial planes could change the mind-set of every American in the world into an auto-immune stance that has turned against the very country we profess to love.
Wake up, America, wake up, wake up.... the pain we feel in our feet is from the flames eating away at the wallet in our back pockets.