Life was different then.

I have been doing a lot of thinking on the present state of the country and I constantly arrive at conclusions that I find upsetting. If I may digress a moment, when I was a young warrior, full of lightning and thunder it was a different country then. It was 1964; the pledge of allegiance was still a mandatory part of each school day morning.  I had recently enlisted in the U.S. Army and spent a considerable amount of time attending farewell parties to me and explaining to buddies why I enlisted. The country was a different place in time, not a Normal Rockwell painting, but different. Family values were everything, holidays were an intricate part of that life and life seemed to be a bit slower.

The events, which lead me to enlist, were still fresh in my mind.

On November 23rd, 1963, the day JFK was assassinated, I was a senior in high school and I remember well the teacher asking us all to bow our heads as she said a small prayer. My class was a mixed religious bowl of values, but not one person said a word. We all simply bowed our heads and prayed. We felt better too. Most of the class was crying, some holding others. School was let out early to allow us to be with our families. I recall walking home a bit confused and dazed wondering how this could happen in America. Once home the rest of the week found the entire family glued to the television watching a great man laid to rest.

Life prior to this had been a mixture of emotions, I was a teenager and life was strange. But through it all my values had remained. We were a close family and brought up that our country was foremost in our lives. We were a part of a wonderful concept and it was to be guarded, defended at all costs. After school I had seen the prospects of becoming employed were rather bleak and decided I would enlist in the U.S. Army. My Father was not happy at first and after a rather emotional discussion with my Mother we all agreed it would be better for me.

At that point in time I really had no concept that a war was secretly being fought. That had not lead to my decision. In truth, I did not find out till a rude, obnoxious; Sergeant screamed it in my face a few weeks later while I was standing in sweltering heat in the south. I had never had a man two inches from my face before calling me so many names at one time and telling me in such eloquent words how I would die in Vietnam. That was my indoctrination to a war.

That was a different time and place, a world filled with family values, love of country and love of the life we had. It is sad now to see that it is gone.

Today when something goes wrong, we blame everyone but ourselves. We blame society for our children not turning out well. We blame our Parents for us not turning out well. And worst of all, we take no blame for anything. We have people fighting to pull the pledge of allegiance from schools and others fighting to get rid of any word associated with Christmas. We have media watchdogs marking down every moment of our President’s life and tearing each comment apart. We put troop strengths; movements and information in newspapers while the terrorist are busy guarding their secrets. We publish, comment, critique each and every word from our elected officials and conduct daily polls inquiring if they should be impeached. We can’t pick up a newspaper; turn on a television or radio without hearing how bad the government is running this country. Terrorist attacks us and for one brief moment the country stands together. Four years later we are tearing it apart. Questioning everything that was done that day, month or year. It is their fault, others, someone else’s, anyone but our own.

I miss the 1960’s. I miss the life we had then.