only people having a happy New Year are the Blackwater killers, doesn't
it?"
My reply was a wee bit more cynical. To wit: "Yes, I suspect
that many health insurance executives are feeling smugly positive nowadays.
The future looks very bright for them."
Many among the brass and folks in
the White House are also happy over the wonderful excuse to launch a de facto war
against Yemen. The more
muslim enemy states, the better. That "'evil exists"
in the Middle East
is now a full degree more believable. And the more
'evil' over yonder, the better. This makes the comparisons with Vietnam
seem less exact. The existence of four "evil" nations to engage in wars is
a propaganda boon.
Congress will soon be asked for another bill to
award still more billions to the Defense Department as the number of wars
grows. All is looking great for the coming expansion and continuance of
Obama's fearless battle against "evil."
also happy. They and Obama, as you know,
are
very cozy. They are long time buddies. The efforts to reduce pollution
coming from coal burning industries are going to be farcical. The execs
in the coal industry know they are going to receive the same kind of
protection given to the insurance industry by Obama and pals. Thirty
million Americans will likely have to pay tribute to the insurance
industry. The coal industry is surely working on plans to also receive
huge rewards from American taxpayers for pretending to limit their
contribution to global warming.
As for the
amoral mercenaries serving U.S. military imperialism, they are now happy
because they can go on killing and looting civilian families with no legal
consequences.
So there you have it -- celebratory joy in the insurance
industry, the
defense industry, the coal industry and the mercenary
industry. In
summary, corruption has been vastly ennobled and expanded
under the
aegis of Herr Obama. What this bodes for our future is anybody's
guess.
Whatever happened to civil disobedience? It was rampant during
the
Vietnam War. I knew dozens of people who had been gassed, beaten,
arrested, and de facto exiled to Canada. In each case, people were
resisting the Vietnam War.
Where have all the flower children gone? I
can remember them giving me
a flower on the streets, in cafes, and in
theaters. Every party I went to during those years was interrupted at least
once by everybody holding hands in a circle and singing, "We Shall
Overcome." Everywhere I went on my motorcycle, little kids would wave their
hands at me with a "V" signal. (For some reason, we bikers were
automatically thought to be antiwar folks.)
Peace lectures at
colleges abounded. Sit-ins happened everywhere -- on
bridges, in main
intersections, in the offices of college deans, and so on.
We really
had no answers, though. We only managed to suspect that
answers had to be
somehow "blowing in the wind." Hope, nonetheless,
struggled on.
We
hoped to ultimately end the Vietnam War and to create a new society
that
was no longer imperialistic, sexist, homophobic, and addicted to
the motto
that "greed is good." It is mind boggling how badly we have
failed.
