I am not sure I can tackle this and make sense of it all, But I'm a fool and I will try anyway.
I was a volunteer in 1970-72 on McGovern's presidential campaign. I was sure that in my country the right man would win. George was the right man for the times. He lost. I knew that the party of the people wasn't. They were no less interested in perpetuating their power than the Republicans, in many ways I see them as more corrupt. It was a Republican Presedent (Eisenhauer) that ordered desegration in the south. It was Democrats that fought against it, until Kennedy. Yet southern Democrats still fought and killed the reformers and voter regestrars. Equality was simply a buzzword for them.
"One Bright Shining Moment" is a good movie to understand this.
My Lai massacre was the fact of war, Viet Nam was paramount on my mind. He would have ended it on inagaugation day 1972. He was defeated. Young men, my friends were dying. Rice paddies in the north were being bombed, these were valid military targets because... (infrastructure, communications and control?) Oh My God, they were babies! There were no military targets.
I was taught and I believed that the police were the friends and protectors of the civilians. This was the view instilled in me from my Army dependants life. But I soon learned that they are a society in and of themselves, anyone outside of their society were non-human. There is no justice in America or anywhere else in the world. The police riot in Chicago proved this. They still fight against any oversight by the public in any manner. I have come to accept that they are a necessary evil.
I love my country because I can hide from the government and survive.
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