Gramps
Mayor
is like answering an invitation to your own hanging, consider this.
The noted poet, Carl Sandburg, once described the past as a "bucket of ashes". And he was right. You might rethink events of the past and draw new conclusions over how things might've been better if you'd handled it differently but that is where digging through the bone pile should stop. All of this haranguing solves nothing except to incite tempers over events that cannot be changed. Looking back through history one might conclude that if cooler heads had prevailed in many instances things might've had a rosier ending. And, I suppose, if you removed from history all of the events sponsored by tyrants such as Hitler the world would be a better place on which to dwell. But you cannot remove them and what we, the elder generation, did learn from our involvement in an incredible conflict was to savor a less than complete victory and get on with our lives. And we did, probably realizing that some points of contention were not settled when the shooting stopped.
We didn't, however, dwell on the BS as long as we might've and we didn't spend the next ten years finger pointing so as to satisfy our disgust over having sacrificed so much for a chance to co-exists in a world that hadn't yet decided what was best for a majority.
Now, that is where we are at again except this time our insecure antics are focused on our own country and not the world's problems in general. When the first Atom bomb was dropped on Japan the world entered a new and difference phase concerning survival. But, somehow "cooler heads" did prevail throughout the cold war and seventy years hence weapons of mass destruction have not played a part in the ongoing struggles of mankind. They might have been a threat to retain stablization but a threat is nothing compared to the devastation their physical use might've wrought.
I think we would be better off to quit blaming the past on a few individuals or any single political party and take the same approach as we did when WWII ended -- suck it in and get on with our lives with an eye on the future rather than staring at the past as a solution. WE can do better than we have. We have, in fact, done better numerous times when the situation demanded it. Had we on a whole not feared for the future of our country on Dec. 7th 1941 I doubt we would have emerged victorious. It was just another day as days go regarding our political druthers but when reality dawned on us and we were pinned to the mat those differences succumbed to something far more important; survival.
WE're there again whether, or not, you want to admit it. We've reached a juncture in the road where we need to make up our minds that country is at the present time more important than individual desires. If we cannot bring ourselves to actually doing for our people what is best for them and quit blowing off steam about what put us here it will become an impossible rut in the road to recovery that cannot be hurdled.
Sarcastic responses aside (and there will be some), most of us know what I say is true. They don't want to hear it or to address the facts but they understand the importance of working as a team over everyone trying to pull his own load.
It does no good to harp about Bush's war or Johnson's war of FDR's war because they are just part of that "bucket of ashes" Sandburg wrote about. Throw them aside and offer some substance for methods toward solving our woes. That is what is needed if we are to prevail. It is wise to remember that we have no guarantees for our future as a nation. Give that some thought. Do you really want to see her go the way of other nations from the past? I doubt you do even if some of the stinging rhetoric is read on these threads would suggest otherwise.
It's a new day of a new year. Buckle-up and then hunker down. Anything worth having is worth working toward and the U. S. of A. is still worth having.
January 2, 2012, a day for decision.
Gramps
The noted poet, Carl Sandburg, once described the past as a "bucket of ashes". And he was right. You might rethink events of the past and draw new conclusions over how things might've been better if you'd handled it differently but that is where digging through the bone pile should stop. All of this haranguing solves nothing except to incite tempers over events that cannot be changed. Looking back through history one might conclude that if cooler heads had prevailed in many instances things might've had a rosier ending. And, I suppose, if you removed from history all of the events sponsored by tyrants such as Hitler the world would be a better place on which to dwell. But you cannot remove them and what we, the elder generation, did learn from our involvement in an incredible conflict was to savor a less than complete victory and get on with our lives. And we did, probably realizing that some points of contention were not settled when the shooting stopped.
We didn't, however, dwell on the BS as long as we might've and we didn't spend the next ten years finger pointing so as to satisfy our disgust over having sacrificed so much for a chance to co-exists in a world that hadn't yet decided what was best for a majority.
Now, that is where we are at again except this time our insecure antics are focused on our own country and not the world's problems in general. When the first Atom bomb was dropped on Japan the world entered a new and difference phase concerning survival. But, somehow "cooler heads" did prevail throughout the cold war and seventy years hence weapons of mass destruction have not played a part in the ongoing struggles of mankind. They might have been a threat to retain stablization but a threat is nothing compared to the devastation their physical use might've wrought.
I think we would be better off to quit blaming the past on a few individuals or any single political party and take the same approach as we did when WWII ended -- suck it in and get on with our lives with an eye on the future rather than staring at the past as a solution. WE can do better than we have. We have, in fact, done better numerous times when the situation demanded it. Had we on a whole not feared for the future of our country on Dec. 7th 1941 I doubt we would have emerged victorious. It was just another day as days go regarding our political druthers but when reality dawned on us and we were pinned to the mat those differences succumbed to something far more important; survival.
WE're there again whether, or not, you want to admit it. We've reached a juncture in the road where we need to make up our minds that country is at the present time more important than individual desires. If we cannot bring ourselves to actually doing for our people what is best for them and quit blowing off steam about what put us here it will become an impossible rut in the road to recovery that cannot be hurdled.
Sarcastic responses aside (and there will be some), most of us know what I say is true. They don't want to hear it or to address the facts but they understand the importance of working as a team over everyone trying to pull his own load.
It does no good to harp about Bush's war or Johnson's war of FDR's war because they are just part of that "bucket of ashes" Sandburg wrote about. Throw them aside and offer some substance for methods toward solving our woes. That is what is needed if we are to prevail. It is wise to remember that we have no guarantees for our future as a nation. Give that some thought. Do you really want to see her go the way of other nations from the past? I doubt you do even if some of the stinging rhetoric is read on these threads would suggest otherwise.
It's a new day of a new year. Buckle-up and then hunker down. Anything worth having is worth working toward and the U. S. of A. is still worth having.
January 2, 2012, a day for decision.
Gramps
