The following post is from 2010 but recalls a January and State Of The Union Address fifty years ago. The 18 year old of today is in a similar situation as I was in....only there is no foundation left to withstand the storm already visible on the horizon!
The Future Ain't What It Used To Be....August 22
It was just my lot to be 18 years old in 1968. It was a remarkable year in its disasters. President Lyndon Johnson gave his State Of The Union address on January 17th and began with Vietnam, He (the enemy) continues to hope that America's will to persevere can be broken. Well...he is wrong. He talked about the cessation of hostilities in the Middle East and prospects for peace. American's living standards were rising for a seventh straight year but violence continued to plague our cities. He addressed means in alleviating that but then cautioned this does not mean a national police force. He proposed a surtax that would only cost the American people one penny on the dollar and that tax to be repealed in two years. He concluded this short address with If ever there was a time to know the pride and excitement and the hope of being an American..it is this time. Less than a week later North Korea seized the USS Pueblo which would remain a crisis for the rest of the year.
The next week would see the beginning of the Tet Offensive that began in Nha Trang, Vietnam. North Vietnam would not only be defeated but destroyed in the weeks that followed, but so would the American public's will to persevere. You would remember the photo I'm sure....a Viet Cong, who had just summarily executed the family of a Vietnamese police officer, was caught and also summarily executed....this in front of a lens that would result in a Pulitzer Prize winning photo that would prove our inhumanity towards man in this war. One day later Richard Nixon would announce his candidacy for President.
The week of February 11th saw 543 Americans killed in Vietnam. On The 27th of that month Walter Cronkite pronounced the Tet Offensive as a draw. On March 12th, Eugene McCarthy won the New Hampshire primary and four days later Robert Kennedy entered the race. On March 31st I was standing at the counter of my favorite hangout, Ted's Variety and Dairy Store, eating a snack and watching President Lyndon Johnson's speech on the television....he pronounced the Tet Offensive a failure, but the huge loss of life, on both sides, and the emergency situation of a projected $20 billion deficit for the following year, and in the need to prove his intentions for peace, he concluded with Accordingly, I shall not seek, and will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.
Five days later Martin Luther King's lifelong quest for equality of opportunity for everyone came to an end in Memphis in an act of terrorism. The beginning of May saw Paris in flames from student riots and on June 4th....my hero.... Robert Kennedy....was shot. Songs like Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant "inspired" the youth. Before August was over the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia was crushed and violent protests rocked the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In Mexico city, in October, hundreds were killed in student protests and riots and two weeks later the summer Olympics began in the same city, and also saw protest. On November 5th Richard Nixon was elected by 500,000 votes and the unemployment rate was 3.3%.
Now it is 42 years later. Peace talks will start again soon in the Middle East. We are leaving Iraq with the promise to keep their government secure, as we did in Vietnam. Socialism succeeded in putting one of its own in our White House and top positions of our Congress. Globalist elites artfully pull the strings of their puppets who many gullibly believe. Student protests are now citizen protests. The deficit is over a trillion dollars. Our Justice Department has lost the trust of the people and Homeland Security often seems more worried about citizens trying to help our nation that those trying to hurt it.
We have placed two unqualified young judges on our Supreme Court, presidential appointees usurp the responsibilities of the Congress, and there is talk of policies perilously close to a national police force. We are being torn apart as a people with government sector employees, bailout recipients and entitlement beneficiaries on one side and most everyone else on the other. We have a young president who has given us two autobiographies but no personal records. Our foreign policy has the discernment of a Neville Chamberlain in Munich and we cut military weapons systems to replace monies burned elsewhere. We have a "foot in the door" health reform that Americans will despise when they see what it is and what it has done. Our Constitution is being held hostage by political correctness. Yogi Berra was right in that the future ain't what it used to be but, Biblically speaking, the future is closer than it used to be for it proclaims a Second Coming of Christ and in a linear time paradigm, we are 42 years closer than we were in 1968. (now 50 years closer)
The Future Ain't What It Used To Be....August 22
It was just my lot to be 18 years old in 1968. It was a remarkable year in its disasters. President Lyndon Johnson gave his State Of The Union address on January 17th and began with Vietnam, He (the enemy) continues to hope that America's will to persevere can be broken. Well...he is wrong. He talked about the cessation of hostilities in the Middle East and prospects for peace. American's living standards were rising for a seventh straight year but violence continued to plague our cities. He addressed means in alleviating that but then cautioned this does not mean a national police force. He proposed a surtax that would only cost the American people one penny on the dollar and that tax to be repealed in two years. He concluded this short address with If ever there was a time to know the pride and excitement and the hope of being an American..it is this time. Less than a week later North Korea seized the USS Pueblo which would remain a crisis for the rest of the year.
The next week would see the beginning of the Tet Offensive that began in Nha Trang, Vietnam. North Vietnam would not only be defeated but destroyed in the weeks that followed, but so would the American public's will to persevere. You would remember the photo I'm sure....a Viet Cong, who had just summarily executed the family of a Vietnamese police officer, was caught and also summarily executed....this in front of a lens that would result in a Pulitzer Prize winning photo that would prove our inhumanity towards man in this war. One day later Richard Nixon would announce his candidacy for President.
The week of February 11th saw 543 Americans killed in Vietnam. On The 27th of that month Walter Cronkite pronounced the Tet Offensive as a draw. On March 12th, Eugene McCarthy won the New Hampshire primary and four days later Robert Kennedy entered the race. On March 31st I was standing at the counter of my favorite hangout, Ted's Variety and Dairy Store, eating a snack and watching President Lyndon Johnson's speech on the television....he pronounced the Tet Offensive a failure, but the huge loss of life, on both sides, and the emergency situation of a projected $20 billion deficit for the following year, and in the need to prove his intentions for peace, he concluded with Accordingly, I shall not seek, and will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.
Five days later Martin Luther King's lifelong quest for equality of opportunity for everyone came to an end in Memphis in an act of terrorism. The beginning of May saw Paris in flames from student riots and on June 4th....my hero.... Robert Kennedy....was shot. Songs like Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant "inspired" the youth. Before August was over the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia was crushed and violent protests rocked the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In Mexico city, in October, hundreds were killed in student protests and riots and two weeks later the summer Olympics began in the same city, and also saw protest. On November 5th Richard Nixon was elected by 500,000 votes and the unemployment rate was 3.3%.
Now it is 42 years later. Peace talks will start again soon in the Middle East. We are leaving Iraq with the promise to keep their government secure, as we did in Vietnam. Socialism succeeded in putting one of its own in our White House and top positions of our Congress. Globalist elites artfully pull the strings of their puppets who many gullibly believe. Student protests are now citizen protests. The deficit is over a trillion dollars. Our Justice Department has lost the trust of the people and Homeland Security often seems more worried about citizens trying to help our nation that those trying to hurt it.
We have placed two unqualified young judges on our Supreme Court, presidential appointees usurp the responsibilities of the Congress, and there is talk of policies perilously close to a national police force. We are being torn apart as a people with government sector employees, bailout recipients and entitlement beneficiaries on one side and most everyone else on the other. We have a young president who has given us two autobiographies but no personal records. Our foreign policy has the discernment of a Neville Chamberlain in Munich and we cut military weapons systems to replace monies burned elsewhere. We have a "foot in the door" health reform that Americans will despise when they see what it is and what it has done. Our Constitution is being held hostage by political correctness. Yogi Berra was right in that the future ain't what it used to be but, Biblically speaking, the future is closer than it used to be for it proclaims a Second Coming of Christ and in a linear time paradigm, we are 42 years closer than we were in 1968. (now 50 years closer)
