Dear Americans,
May 1, 2011 will be remembered as the day the world learned Osama Bin Laden had been killed by U.S. Forces. May 2, 2011 will be remembered as the day the conspiracy theories started. Is he really dead? Is the government lying? Isn't it fishy that he was buried at sea? Did Dick Cheney actually have the body taxidermied as a trophy? Was Osama really Deep Throat?
Oh heaven. Put down the Kool-Aid. Turn off the talk radio. Quit watching TV. Life is going to go on. How do I know this? Experience. Born in 1953 I have survived 10 presidents and their administrations. President War Hero, (Eisenhower), President Charisma, (Kennedy), President Nam, (Johnson), President Criminal, (Nixon), President Lucky, (Ford), President Sweater, (Carter), President Actor, (Reagan), President Taxes, (Bush 1), President Zipper, (Clinton), President Duh, (Bush 2), and still surviving under President Hope, (Obama).
In my lifetime these Presidents and this nation have faced war, economic crises, energy crises, riots in the streets, assassinations, civil rights reform, criminal behavior by elected officials, sex scandals, both natural and man made disasters. We're still here. Still carrying on with our daily lives. Celebrating victories and mourning horrible losses.
"Oh, but 'they' say we should all be worried and that we have one foot in the toilet and the handle is being flushed, what we will do?" Chill. In 1960, I was 7. One Sunday morning I sat and watched Meet The Press, (Clutch Cargo must not have been on that day). There was a panel discussion about the presidential candidates in the coming election. An elderly white man began a rant about Catholics. The stance being that if Kennedy were elected he would turn over the financial coffers of the nation to the Church. He would involve the Pope in our politics. Citizens would be forced to convert to Catholicism and pay 10 percent of their income to the Church. This angry man was dead serious. I started envisioning my confirmation dress and I really, really hoped to get a mantilla veil to wear to mass when we converted from Protestant to Catholic.
Kennedy was elected. I waited for the big announcement that we would soon be reading in Latin, going to confession and eating fish on Friday. Didn't happen. When Kennedy was shot in Dallas we got the entire week off from school beginning the Friday afternoon of the shooting through Thanksgiving. On returning to school I was asked by my 5th grade teacher, Miss Jameson, to take a note to the office to be copied on the mimeograph machine. I loved these little trips to the office where I could breathe in the aroma of the magic elixir that printed blue letters on blank pages. As I stood there at the counter waiting for my warm copies I overheard a group of teachers behind me talking about the assassination. They were visibly upset. "It's a plot by Adam Clayton Powell", said the most dreaded math teacher in school. The other teachers nodded in agreement. Adam Clayton Powell was a black congressman much reviled in some areas. I didn't know his position in Congress but I recognized his name from the news. "He will eventually be in the Oval Office, I believe that", said another teacher in the group. "Yes, he will kill 'em all until he is sitting president. Kennedy was just the beginning", agreed the math teacher. (possibly this theory was based on a social studies theme written by Rush Limbaugh in Junior High?).
This was big news to me. Would Adam Clayton Powell just get a gun and mow down people in the Capital and that would make him President? Even as a fifth grader that sounded like a stretch. I asked the smartest man in the world, my dad, "do we still get to be Catholics when Adam Clayton Powell is president?"
"What on earth are you talking about?" dad said looking at me sideways. I told him about the man on Meet The Press before Kennedy's election and gave him a brief rundown of the conversation by the teachers I had overheard.
"Some people are just idiots", said my dad. "The biggest idiots are the ones who listen to them".
You're Welcome,
Lillybellblues
If you've never read Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free by Charles P. Pierce, you should. I have a feeling you'd enjoy it.
ReplyDelete"Some people are just idiots," indeed. Lately, we seem to be making a virtue of idiocy... but your post is a reminder that we've had idiots with us for a long time.
First, thank you for reading my post. Idiots have been the bane of mankind since we wiggled out of the ooze. May they all turn their ankles so we will recognize them by their limping.
ReplyDeleteMr. Price's book does sound like it is right up alley. Amazon and I thank you. :)