{"id":142342,"date":"2014-12-01T21:56:32","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T21:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=142342"},"modified":"2014-12-01T21:56:32","modified_gmt":"2014-12-01T21:56:32","slug":"straight-talk-reflections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/straight-talk-reflections\/","title":{"rendered":"Straight Talk and Reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Lendman\u00a0<\/em>
\nRINF Alternative News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I generally restrict personal comments to one-on-one emails. Or discussions with friends, family and others.<\/p>\n

This article an exception. Why not at age 80. Still working at trying to regain my full health and vigor. A daily struggle.<\/p>\n

So much more I want to do. Feeling rushed to do all I can while I can. Taking things a day at a time. Hoping for the best. Aging isn’t for sissies. For sure not getting sick.<\/p>\n

At age 70, I discovered my passion. What I love best. In retirement. What I never could have imagined earlier. Polar opposite my formal working life.<\/p>\n

Writing on major world and national issues. Media work as host and guest.<\/p>\n

Explaining what readers, listeners and viewers most need to know. What directly affects their lives and welfare.<\/p>\n

Scrupulously seeking hard truths. Telling it like it is. Criticizing media scoundrel rubbish.<\/p>\n

Denouncing it for what it is. Burying hard truths. A propaganda bullhorn for wealth, power and privilege.<\/p>\n

Big Lies repeated ad nauseam. On issues mattering most. On the wrong side of history.<\/p>\n

Orwell was right. Saying in times of universal deceit, truth-telling is a revolutionary act.<\/p>\n

An essential one. Especially at the most perilous time in world history. With homeland freedoms eroding. Disappearing in plain sight.<\/p>\n

Lunatics in Washington make policy. Confronting Russia irresponsibly. Recklessly. Risking global war.<\/p>\n

Potential mushroom-shaped cloud denouement. Jack Kennedy transformed himself in office from cold warrior to peacemaker.<\/p>\n

“Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” More on him below.<\/p>\n

A personal note. I grew up in Boston. From the mid-1930s – mid-1950s through college.<\/p>\n

Then military service. Wharton Graduate School. In February 1960, a newly-minted MBA.<\/p>\n

At a different time than now. Good and bad. Eisenhower was president. Real unemployment low. Good jobs available for those qualified.<\/p>\n

Anyone wanting work found it. With good pay, benefits and job security.<\/p>\n

Most years saw good economic conditions. During post-WW II expansion. Inflation was low.<\/p>\n

The average new car cost $1,500. My new VW Beetle cost $600. A typical home under $10,000.<\/p>\n

College was affordable. Harvard’s 1952 full-year tuition was $600. Four years later it was $1,000. For a full, two-semester year.<\/p>\n

Anyone could attend evenings. For $5 a course. Get a Harvard degree for about $175. Taking courses with professors teaching daytime.<\/p>\n

What my mother did. Taking some of the same courses I took at the same time with the same professor. I daytime. She at night.<\/p>\n

Graduating with me in the same class. The first mother and son ever at Harvard. Perhaps to this day.<\/p>\n

I inquired recently if so. By email. To Harvard’s president. Explaining a little about myself. No response. Maybe no records exist. Showing it one way or another.<\/p>\n

I still have a Harvard graduation photo. A treasure. My mother and I together. In cap and gown. I looking straight-faced.<\/p>\n

My mother beaming from ear-to-ear. Not for herself. For me. She was all give. No take. Special and then some.<\/p>\n

Wharton treated me better than Harvard. In 2010, several reunion committee members contacted me. About representing my class.<\/p>\n

For its 50th reunion. They were outvoted. Choosing a former corporate boss instead. Robert Crandall. Former American Airlines chairman and president.<\/p>\n

He gave a marvelous address. Surprised me. I’d have been proud to deliver it myself. Expressing concerns about today’s troubled world. Essential need for change.<\/p>\n

We exchanged emails. I explained my current passion. He encouraged me to keep at it.<\/p>\n

I assured him I would. Urged him to follow my writing. Tell others to get active. Work for vitally needed change.<\/p>\n

Post-WW II America differed from today. Economically dominant. Unchallenged. Its manufacturing base by far the world’s strongest. Union representation high.<\/p>\n

Television in its infancy. In a June 1950 commencement speech, Boston University President Daniel Marsh said, “(i)f (this) craze continues…we are destined to have a nation of morons.”<\/p>\n

Jefferson called an educated citizenry “a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”<\/p>\n

Madison warned that “(a) popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or, perhaps both.”<\/p>\n

In 1748, Montesquieu said “(t)he tyranny of a principle in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.”<\/p>\n

Jack Kennedy said “(t)he ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” More on him below.<\/p>\n

In the 40s and 50s, southern and northern cities were segregated. They still are. Virtually all 1960s civil rights gains lost. Alaska and Hawaii additions grew America to 50 states.<\/p>\n

The Korean War left things unsettled. An uneasy armistice remains. Cold War politics settled in. Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) prevented WW III.<\/p>\n

Censure ruined Joe McCarthy. In May 1957 he was dead. At age 48. The CIA’s first coup toppled Iran’s Mohammad Mosaddegh. A generation of terror followed.<\/p>\n

A year later, Guatemala’s Jacobo Arbenz Guzman was ousted. Fueling decades of genocide against defenseless indigenous people.<\/p>\n

Throughout the 50s, few followed Vietnam events. Its defeat of France. America’s growing involvement.<\/p>\n

Who knew decades of genocidal war would follow. Or continue in multiple new theaters. No matter who’s president. Or controls Congress. Or sits on the High Court.<\/p>\n

Ruthless embedded power runs things. Monied interests. War-profiteers. Gorging at the public trough. While popular needs go begging.<\/p>\n

When I was in college and grad school, Palestinian Territories weren’t occupied. Pro-Israeli zealots weren’t commonplace like today.<\/p>\n

Kennedy succeeded Eisenhower. Less than three years later he was gone.<\/p>\n

November 22, 1963 a day I’ll never forget. Nor should anyone old enough to remember.<\/p>\n

Fifty-one years ago. The worst was yet to come. Assassinating him made it easy.<\/p>\n

War in Vietnam he wanted ended escalated. So did turning swords into plowshares.<\/p>\n

Rapprochement with Russia. Recognizing Palestinian rights. Lots more on the right side of history.<\/p>\n

Imagine what might have been had he lived. Served two terms. Imagine what never was.<\/p>\n

Today most good jobs and benefits are gone. Social America is on the chopping block for elimination altogether.<\/p>\n

The nation is being thirdworldized. Protracted Main Street Depression conditions persist. Poverty is a growth industry.<\/p>\n

About 23% of Americans wanting work can’t find it. Most jobs are rotten temp or part-time low pay\/poor or no benefit service ones.<\/p>\n

With no security or futures. Horrific conditions getting worse, not better. Hunger is a major problem.<\/p>\n

For about 50 million Americans. Around 13 million families. About 16 million children. In the world’s richest country.<\/p>\n

Using its resources irresponsibly. For banker bailouts. Other corporate handouts. Militarism. Permanent wars. The national pastime.<\/p>\n

Making the world safe for war-profiteers. Wars waged to enrich them. Empower them.<\/p>\n

Michael Parenti calling war-making the best way for Nobel Peace Prize acknowledgement. Peacemakers needn’t apply.<\/p>\n

Jack and Jacqueline Kennedy loved poetry. They made the arts part of their White House life.<\/p>\n

On June 16, 1956, as a junior Massachusetts senator, he addressed my Harvard commencement exercises.<\/p>\n

Outdoors in Harvard’s yard. A longstanding tradition. Wall-to-wall with graduates. Family. Friends. Global guests of distinction.<\/p>\n

Saying how “proud and grateful” he was “for the honor bestowed on me today\u2026(A)n honor I could not possibly have foreseen some 16 years ago as I attended my own commencement exercises.”<\/p>\n

Delivering an erudite, incisive, timely address. Filled with scholarly references and quotes. Polar opposite what politicians say today.<\/p>\n

Calling truth the object of controversy. Sacrificed for political advantage.<\/p>\n

In 1856, Republicans had three brilliant presidential aspirant orators. William Cullen Bryant. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Ralph Waldo Emerson.<\/p>\n

In 1860, Americans elected Republican Abraham Lincoln. Kennedy said “(t)hose were the carefree days when the eggheads were all Republicans.”<\/p>\n

Compare them to Obama, Bush and likeminded scoundrels.<\/p>\n

Kennedy once said “(w)hen power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations.”<\/p>\n

“When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.”<\/p>\n

At Harvard, he quoted Milton, Bismark, Goethe and others. Books were the tools of early US leaders, he said. Not their enemies.<\/p>\n

“Locke, Milton, Sydney, Montesquieu, Coke, and Bollingbroke were among those widely read in political circles and frequently quoted in political pamphlets,” Kennedy explained.<\/p>\n

“Our political leaders traded in the free commerce of ideas with lasting results both here and abroad.”<\/p>\n

The link between US scholars and politicians lasted over a century. When freedom is endangered, intellects and politicians should be natural allies, Kennedy stressed.<\/p>\n

“(W)orking more closely together for a common cause against a common enemy.”<\/p>\n

He ended saying “if more politicians knew poetry and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live on this commencement day of 1956.”<\/p>\n

In seven years, five months, he’d be dead. Murdered by dark forces ruling America today.<\/p>\n

Killing JFK, RFK, MLK, and Malcolm X decapitated America’s left. In the 1970s, things began shifting right. Progressive charismatic leaders were gone.<\/p>\n

None exist today. Their absence is sorely missed. America gets away with mass murder and then some.<\/p>\n

Dark forces run things. War on humanity persists. Peacemakers aren’t around to stop it. Survival hangs in the balance.<\/p>\n

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.<\/p>\n

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanIII.html<\/p>\n

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.<\/p>\n

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Lendman\u00a0 RINF Alternative News I generally restrict personal comments to one-on-one emails. Or discussions with friends, family and others. This article an exception. Why not at age 80. Still working at trying to regain my full health and vigor. A daily struggle. So much more I want to do. Feeling rushed to do all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-142342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}