About Memorial Day.

[cornermouse]

I watched a Vietnam era attack of the police on a peaceful protest by college students in Wisconsin on PBS last night. They followed that with a story about the Bonus protest (also peaceful) in Washington after WWI and the military's attack on them. Apparently their biggest mistake was having success in working toward their goal of getting the bonus money before they died. And I'm sure the young man who saved Patton's life regretted having done so after Patton refused to even see him, but that's a little off my point.

I was really struck by the anger that the police still felt toward the students, especially when you consider that the police were the ones who were doing the beating that day and the students were the ones who were being hurt. Was it guilt talking or was it hatred? The soldier from D Company sort of defied logic when he blamed the military for sending them out to an ambush that wiped out A Company and decimated his own (only slightly more than half of those sent out that day returned) and yet he also spoke how he hated the protestors. Meanwhile at home the newpapers were reporting the battle as a victory. Things do not appear to have changed.

Anyway, I realized yet again that if, as the ex-policemen and ex-soldier was saying, we simply go along with any actions that our government takes; if we unquestioningly give our support and do not question their actions; if we do not find the courage to stand up and say "this is wrong!", we become no different and no better than the citizens of Hitler's Germany. That's not a future I want to hand off to my children and grandchildren.

Once we get out of Iraq, we the people have a responsibility to make sure that we don't engage in any more foolish wars like Iraq or Vietnam. War and the loss of life should only be for protection of our nation or an overwhelming threat to the world and eventually us. Human life should never be spent foolishly.

[1620rock]

1. I also watched the PBS program last night. It was very well...

..done. Indeed the police riot at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago it was much worse than the UW police riot. In those days the cops hated students and people against the war.(And don't forget Kent State). I believe this trend is starting again and the cops will soon be out of control again. I am a federal officer myself (and I see this trend in a lot of our newer younger officers.) It seems also that most cops on the state and local level seem to have gone into that profession not to protect and serve, but to bully people and carry guns and badges...like a power trip I guess. Anyway when we take to the streets to demand change and to stop the war we must be very watchful of the authorities.