Marijuana.com

dedbr

wiki....

A good example of "Let's make a new law so we can cover our asses......"

They had the right to disperse, not murder. Thanks for the wiki, Tro, but it sure doesn't express the feeling of the time, and it was one of great social upheaval. I think I am feeling something like those times now......

"A hard rainnnnn, is gonna fall......."


Some Where In Ded Land..........

 

Trocisp

The same circumstances could easily be repeated... It's not that far fetched...

We're in a war, over our head, people are starting to get fed up... the question is, this time, ded, are those in charge going to learn from the mistakes of their parents generation?

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"No references to the need to fight terror can be an argument for restricting human rights." - Vladimir Putin
"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." - Sir Winston Churchill
"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything." - Friedrich Nietzsche
"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months." - Oscar Wilde
"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies." - Aristotle

sterbo

I was in my late teens and immersed well in the thick of it - What ded has said here and the manner in which he captures the burden of that moment in time is spot on.
For those who are fortunate enough to only read or hear about it, don't read what he wrote just once. Take a deep breath, go back and read it again, then hold that thought because as he later points out we're right up against it,
Again...

.

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sterbo

No. Thats why we need a wholesale changing of the guard.
We can debate all day long as to whether any of those campaigning to lead our country for the next four years will ultimately make the quantum shift we so desperately need.

I can only tell you that, for damn sure, it ain't John or Hilliary...

dedbr

Just one other thing I want to add before this one goes into storage for a year. We had selective service back then. The draft. They sent you a letter in the mail that said you had to show up. No choice. It didn't matter what you were or where you were from, you better be there or else.

Now imagine this, we're sending everybody we can sign up to a war we are supposed to be serious about. Which means that we're not exactly sending our best........

"Which explains why we lost the war in Viet Nam, because we were sending those dirty hippies......." Unknown.


Some Where In Ded Land...........

 

sterbo

Yea. And for all you younger gents I gotta tell you it was a very bad time.

There had never been anything like it before. Regardless of differing opinions regarding prior wars fought, our incursion into Vietnam brought a confluence of events into play that in some ways could be considered analogous to our Civil War in that it pitted one generation against the other with extreme bitterness and distress.
For those of us who were against the war from the outset the whole thing was particularly unsettling. Here I was, 16 years old, being literally threatened with bodily violence day in a day out by 'adults' calling me and other like minded individuals things like "commie pinko fags".
Or, "If you fucking pot smoking hippies don't like it then get your fucking asses over to Russia. Or, "America, love it or leave it". Ad nauseum.

We were verbally abused, physically abused. Unveiled threats were made repeatedly towards our families and friends. Get the picture?
And believe me it may sound melodramatic but in fact it became the nature of our teenage years.

All the while, looming ever closer, was the Draft. No real choice there. We turned 18 and we knew we were shipping out, no if ands or buts. And all the while thousands of kids just like us were coming home - and unlike this Iraq war, most were not coming home crippled and maimed; most were coming home in body bags and in far greater numbers than we've seen to date in this war.

I said earlier - "No real choice", but of course we all ultimately have a choice don't we?

I refused to go and be a part of what was a criminal act on the part of my country, my country that I had been brought up to love and be proud of, whatever it's failings.
I registered as a Conscientious Objector, was called before a Board of Inquiry and without pause, was ridiculed from the moment I sat down to the moment I left, their rejection of my plea in hand. No matter that the prevailing religious precept for me and most of my family was Quaker. No matter that I was wiling to perform alternate service here or that of a medic overseas.

I was called and took my "physical" and passed. I was called for "induction" and told along with about 20 others to "step over the line and be inducted into the U.S. Armed Forces.
I was the only one to refuse and subsequently began the wait for the Federal Government to send me a letter of indictment, the precursor to a trial whereupon I would be subject, if convicted, to a fine and five years in Federal prison.
In my case I would have to wait a bit. My older brother by 1 year had similarly refused induction, been indited and his trial was just underway so I would have to watch as the Government's attorneys attempted to convict him and put him in jail first, and if that wasn't bad enough, all the while knowing my turn was months if not weeks, away.
Yea, it was a very bad time...