random ramblings from an old boomer

[blues90]

I was 14 when JFK was murdered and this is where the beginnings of the horrors began.

I saw friends never come back from Vietnam alive and watched the constant stream of anti-war protests render no end and beatings and madness. I saw the youth of that time try to affect a change to looked and sounded like a good idea if we had tried a different method perhaps we would have succeeded to a greater degree.

I voted twice for Clinton , I was horrified as to what Bush sr had done in Iraq thinking that we were finally done with wars. I have always been a liberal.

I as many others did watched as the 2000 elections were handed away and felt sick because of this. In 2004 I felt we had another chance to pull out of this madness and after just being fired from a job of 12 years in Oct 2004 I walked feeling reassured that Kerry would win and woke the next day to find that all the promise of counting all votes just evaporated and we were once again at the mercy of the bush admin.

The in 2006 once again I had hope if we could only win and see the promise of ending Iraq hold true but as we now see this was never done.

I must admit, when the primaries began in 2007 I felt left with nothing to gain , it was once again the better of two evils and black box machines still waiting in the wings.

I did feel ok we have a few good people Kucinich and Edwards until they were washed away.

Then the Obama craze began and all I could connect to was how I felt back in my youth at voting age and how little I really knew and how the youth of the 60's too thought we had all the answers which we didn't.

I felt ok here we are the battle between Hillary and Obama. Again I thought of the youth and how we were as youths in the 60's and all the grand ideas of hope and the end of bad times were finally here to stay.

My gut reaction was first, who in their right mind would want to be president after this last 8 years and what could they possibly hope to change. I also thought both were close to the same and we were going to make history if it killed us , the object of sex and race to the big win was on.

It is difficult to believe in anything or anyone for me these days. There has been much anger and division and hate and killing, campaign after campaign , issue after issue , lies here and lies there , the back beat of the admin continuing to tear apart the Constitution , crime after crime and media spin and the blogs and radio pulling this way and that.

Now we have reached a point where the Republican party may finally have torn itself apart , McCain created a monster and Palin fed the monster and it has turned to bite them back , it has and admittedly quite scary, exposed just how many hate filled and racist americans there are out there.

I just hope if the Dem party does win this time and we make it without some un-foreseen monster leaping out of the dark that all the hope will begin and all the promises will be kept and we can once again find some sort of trust and a way out of this insanity and that everyone with good intentions through all of this make it home and survive.

All I can do is hope. All we really have to do is lose the hate.

[cwydro]

1. I like your last line especially.

Very true.

[Faygo Kid]

2. I was 12 when JFK died. You're not that old. We need to keep our promises to each other.

That beats hope every time. You're not alone. And you can't rely on others. But we can rely on each other, and are starting to do so again.

Peace, love, and rock and roll, my friend.

[frogcycle]

3. every now and then

I play some of the songs

Age of Aquarius, Where have all the flowers gone...

And I think like you, what if it had been successful? What if we had done it differently? What if JFK had not been killed? What if LBJ had not given us VN?


I still think it can be. If we can all just let it.

All we were saying...

[annabanana]

4. You and I have walked the same road through time and space.

And here I am again, cheering with my children who could have been me, back then. The JFK assasination, and 9/11 playing much the same rolls in our lives..in our political awakenings...

I will not give up in this lifetime, or the next (given the chance)

[FarLeftRage]

5. I was five when JFK was murdered

and I share most of the older boomers memories.

Hard to believe that I became cynical at such an early age.

I went from being a progressive Democrat to a Socialist.

And you're right, we can only hope and lose the hate.

[POAS]

6. I was just turned 19 when JFK

was assassinated. Your a whipper-snapper.:hi:

Seriously though, I recently had a discussion (rant) with two young men at our local Obama headquarters during an organizational meeting. I let them know that my generation let theirs down because we let down our guard and the bastards got back in charge. I told them not to make the same mistake. Get the bastards out and keep them out!

[Psyop Samurai]

7. Our short term objective is clear...

Elect Obama.

Long term, we must develop immunity to psychopaths...

...their methods made utterly and incontestably transparent.

And that knowledge must become mother's milk to successive generations.

Unfortunately, this will require a leap of consciousness which has yet to approach critical mass. Therefor, we're in the unenviable position which all those who came before us were: merely keeping the seed alive. Not acceptable, considering the vast challenges in front of us, but there it is.

I met a lovely Danish family recently, who had moved to the US ten years back. They were delightful and very aware. The young son (20's), who had lived in Berkeley for a while, characterized the populace there as dazed and unbelieving, as in "we thought we had won all these battles".

My reply to him was that we HAD won them; that what you see has been accomplished by stealth and deception by psychopaths in a rigged game.

[dgibby]

8. I turned 18 the month after JFK was murdered.

I can't remember what I had for breakfast this am, but that day is etched like granite in my mind. It was the day time stood still.

The fear and sadness were palpable, like an anvil sitting on your chest. That's why what I see McCain and Palin doing now is so disturbing.

Bobby, Martin,and John, among others. No more. Enough is enough!

[gratefultobelib]

9. I hear you. I even remember what I was wearing. I was a senior in college.

[tbyg52]

10. I was 11

and I put up our pink Xmas tree with the very new thing mini blinking lights as I watched the preparations and the funeral.

I couldn't agree more with your last sentence. I would only add: "And the fear."

The boomers are the only majority I've ever been a part of, and I think we did OK and are still going to do OK.

Obama/Biden 08

[roguevalley]

11. I was ten or eleven. what a cruel day that was