More politics

This was meant to be a response to J's comments from yesterday but it got too long.

I lay the blame for American apathy, a good chunk of it, at the feet of Nixon and his Watergate chums. Before that, I really think people thought that most politicians were generally decent. And they certainly weren't. It's very discouraging, though to hear the numbers of voters at the end of every election. I think voting should be required before you get a driver's license or something...

I can't get Germany in the 30s out of my head lately. I wish everyone would read and understand that Martin Niemöller wasn't just talking about Germany:

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Hello. I have a son. I don't want him to be drafted in six (SIX!) years to fight in Iraq because of the current administration's idiotic policies from 2003/04. Vietnam lasted over ten years, so this scenario is not an impossibility.

Of course, Nixon is not entirely to blame. The Baby-Boomers, which I am either at the tail end of or just out of depending on the statistical info used, have a lot to answer for: possibly the most self-centered generation up to that point in history. And many BBers have perpetuated that ME-ness in their children and grandchildren so that now we have three generations of people who can't/won't/refuse to face responsibility of any kind. And guess who is running the country.

On the other hand, history was full of stupid people, people whose entire focus was off-kilter, and they managed to beget the American Constitution, the fight against slavery, women's suffrage, the destruction of Hitler...

People, after all, are people. I just wish they weren't so bloody human (i.e. fallible) all the time!

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ENOUGH. I'll have something light and fluffy to blog later this afternoon. I promise. ;-)