Watching the original Walking Tall tonight, I reminisced about the feeling of hope in our nation in the early 1970s. In the midst of the Watergate scandal, people still seemed to have the perspective that justice would prevail if enough of the public was informed about the facts of a situation. We were finally getting out of the morass of Vietnam, the Civil Rights Act was an established fact and a decade had passed since the assassination of JFK. It seemed to many, I think, that we had passed through the worst of post WWII and could focus on taking care of the veterans injured in body and mind from years of police actions in foreign countries. Movies like Billy Jack enjoyed enormous popularity because of the message, not polished professionalism or special effects. M*A*S*H and American Graffiti helped open the eyes of a new generation to the futility of war, we thought. 4 decades later, we seem to be repeating the same mistakes. There is less public debate because of overwhelmingly consolidated corporate control of the media. The illegal actions of certain administrations were covered up and downplayed as the 1980s introduced more consumer luxuries and distractions, while the local agencies intended to protect citizens became more and more militarized, corrupt and abusive. Henry Kissinger walks free, Oliver North got a slap on the wrist and Dick Cheney & associates reaped enormous wealth from our invasion of Iraq, while our military remains entrenched in Afghanistan - protecting opium crops and corporate interests. When will enough be enough?
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 04:11:53 +0000
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