Today, I Am 58. . .

58% Of America's Last Century, Post WWII To The Present. . .
by The Old Hippie Because It Is My B'Day. . .

I have seen the unthinkable, what I thought was impossible, happen, as have all Americans in my age bracket.  I have seen our peaceful nation of, by, and for the people, that fought, and won, a war of conviction against fascists, turned into a dangerous and feared globally dominate bully - of, by, and for a tiny few arrogantly smirking sociopathic corporatists thieves, of the enhanced-theocratic-fascist ilk.

I have seen my nation being shown the proof of this, clearly, public record in-your-face proof of this reality, and have watched, bitched about, ranted over, written about - the incredible and impossible-to-accept fact - that my nation's citizens have not done, so far to date, anything of real effect or impact, about it, or them.

The denial, and still lingering apathy, enables it to continue to worsen.  And I am seriously beginning to believe it may be too late to turn it back around.  I truly never thought I would live long enough to witness my beloved American Constitutional Democracy destroyed from within by its own citizens.  But it seems I have. . .  Happy birthday to me.

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And For Those Whom Have Forgotten History. . .

"The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests.  It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality.  Today Christians stand at the head of our country.  We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit.  We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press — in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of LIBERAL excess during the past years."

-- taken from: The Speeches of Adolph Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1, Michael Hakeem, Ph.D.
   London, Oxford University Press, 1942), pp. 871-872

"The [senior Bush] aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community."...  I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism.  He cut me off."

"That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued.  "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.  And while you're studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out.  We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

(Ron Suskind talking to senior Bush advisor, The New York Times Magazine)

"Those Who Make Peaceful Revolution Impossible
Will Make Violent Revolution Inevitable. . ."
John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962