Saturday Thoughts

Its a bit sad when you realize that so many people can be so easily fooled by things that never were.

Take a story that has persisted for about 50 years, that returning Vietnam veterans were spat upon when they returned to the states.  Now there is no evidence of this happening, although it may have, but all through that period the vast majority of Americans still supported the troops if not the war.

I got out during this period and passed through airports in California, Chicago and New York in my uniform and the main reception I got was being ignored.  I think a few people may have acknowledged my service but it was just busy airports with no spitting gong on.

For any number of reasons, most of them related to the fact that you went into and out of the service individually the only people normally waiting for you would be your family.  Even on campus as a veteran in the City University system, I don't remember anyone accusing me of anything.

However, even though my own experience wasn't supportive of the story, I assumed it was happening or had happened to other vets, but apparently not, at least not in any significant way.

Things like this get pushed by certain factions and take on a life of their own.  Once they get repeated often enough they get picked up by society as true.

People have always felt that things were better in the past.  Its called nostalgia and generally its very unreliable.

Things generally get better at least technically and socially.  When I was a young person we had black and white TVs with manual tuners and all sorts of people were being oppressed, blacks, gays, Hispanics, and women to a large extent.  That is not an all inclusive list.

Well the TVs are certainly much better and I think there is less oppression, at least to some extent.

Now I was young and healthy and able to run and feel good about a lot of things without too many worries.

I think that is the main reason we feel to old days were better, but they really weren't.

You have to grow up.