The Empire Page

          When I was at Bentley College in the late 1960’s, Boston was a hot bed of social unrest and political activism. Anti-Vietnam War demonstrations were occurring on a regular basis on Boston Common.

          It was the anti-war movement, the free love/sexual revolution movement, the drug revolution spearheaded by Dr. Timothy Leary and his catch phrase “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” LBJ was leaving and Richard Nixon was in the White House and he purportedly had his “silent majority” right by his side.

          We often heard of this silent majority but we didn’t really understand who they were or where we could find them. It was always a mystery to us. This large mass of people who supported Richard Nixon no matter what he did.

          Then Richard Nixon, with his “silent majority” as his backbone, announced the United States would be invading Cambodia. We were upset and disillusioned and throughout the country the “not so silent minority” protested at numerous campuses nationwide.

          But let me reset the stage even further. With a promise to end the Vietnam War, Nixon had been elected president in 1968. In November of 1969 the My Lai Massacre prompted widespread outrage across the country and the world. The war had appeared to be winding down throughout 1969, so when Nixon announced the invasion of Cambodia in the Spring of 1970, many young people, including college students and teachers, were concerned about being drafted to fight in a war they strongly opposed and, across the country, campuses erupted in protests in what Time magazine called “a nation-wide student strike”, setting the stage for the events of early May 1970.

          The Kent State shootings, also known as the Kent State massacre, occurred at Kent State University on 4 May 1970, and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard. The guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others.

          There was a significant national response to the shootings. Hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of over eight million students. The event further divided the country along political lines in an already socially contentious time in our country.

          Personally, as a student, I was outraged. I was not an active war protestor but neither was several of the students that were killed and wounded at Kent State. I was even more outraged when then President Nixon had a callous reaction to the killings. Could the “silent majority” actually tolerate the killing of innocent civilians? Apparently they did and now let me fast forward to the present time.

          It’s funny, maybe even humorous, what the passage of time can do to a person, a generation and to a nation of people. The war protestors of the 1960s and 1970s, aka The Baby Boomers, are now into their late 50s and 60s. Many of them, over the last 6 years, have had a chance to protest the Iraq War. A war that to many people, is not all that dissimilar to the Vietnam War in terms of not having a good national defense reason to be there fighting.

          So one can argue, the more things change, the more they stay the same and, the only thing that is constant is change. But sometimes change can be for the good; sometimes for the worse; and sometimes just for the sake of change. In my lifetime I have seen dramatic changes in the people in this country. And, in my humble opinion, it has not been for the good.

          Let me try to take this one item at a time as a way of more clearly explaining my beliefs:

The Family Unit – The family unit in this country is declining at an alarming rate and has been for the last 40 years or more. The continually raising divorce rate in this country is a major factor but the need for both parents to work in order to maintain their desired lifestyle is also a major contributor to the decline.

Families started to play “keeping up with the Jones” back in the late 1950s and early 1960s and look at where it has lead. We are a nation of excesses and luxuries we really don’t need. A case in point is the sub-prime rate mortgage collapse that has occurred and will continue to occur for the next few years and mortgages payments increase.

Families who really couldn’t afford to own a home, or couldn’t afford a mansion but could afford a normal home, were allowed to get what appeared to be cheaper mortgages. Families started to live well beyond their means. They were already doing that but with smaller ticketed items: big screen TVs; i Phones; multiple cars; RVs; boats, etc.

One of the major reasons for divorce in this country is money problems, yet we continue to live beyond our means. We need to remember these famous words “there will always be people better off than you and people worse off than you” and your goal is to be comfortable with your lot.

Who really lost out are the children of the two-parent and the single parent working families, the so called “latch key generation”. Children need guidance, especially in their formative years. We always had our moms at home when we returned from school in the afternoon. She made sure that: I did my homework; I changed out of my school clothes; and that I had a small snack before dinner. There were no video games or computers. We were outside getting exercise playing baseball or kickball, or playing tag or just riding our bikes. There was no obesity problem with kids the way it is today. We had our daily exercise and mom was cooking healthy meals. They were no McDonalds or Burger King or Taco Bell for dinner. The only fast food we ever had was maybe an occasional TV dinner.

Generations of children were left unsupervised for two to four hours a day. And we all know what generally happens when children are left unsupervised.

Patriotism – Over the last 40 years I have seen a decline in patriotism in our country. Of course after the events of 9/11/2001 we did experience a large spike in patriotism that lasted maybe two to three years. It has almost subsided to the levels it was before 9/11. This is a shame. When I was a youngster I was extremely proud of my country. That sense of patriotism was given to me by my parents and at school. At home my father was always singing patriotic songs; America the Beautiful; God Bless America; and the Star Spangled Banner.

We were taught to always sing out the Star Spangled banner at our Little League games and at all sporting events we attended. We took off our hats and placed our right hand over our hearts. We displayed our flags on our houses and on flagpoles at all national holidays. I just don’t see that anymore. I sing our national anthem at sporting events as often as I can and if someone else is singing it I sing it from the stands, but most of the time I am the only other person singing. It’s a shame. In addition, most people don’t even remove their hats or salute the flag when it is presented at a parade or sporting event.

          Religious Beliefs – Freedom of religion is one of our basic rights as an American. Our country was founded on a strong religious belief in God. It’s on our money: In God We Trust. It’s in most of our most cherished national documents. But over the years our own government has banned the phrase “under God” from our own Pledge of Allegiance to our flag. Systematically all objects and all references to God have been removed from all public government buildings.

It’s just wrong and almost everyone I know from my age group is appalled that it is happening. We have to make it known to our elected officials that we do not agree with what has happened and if they act to reverse it we will vote them out of office.

Remember in many cases it is the same legislators that have removed God from our lives that are breaking the laws of the church to which they worship by stealing governments funds, committing adultery or having illegal sex with minors and countless other sins and regressions.

          I could go on and on citing examples but I need to bring this article to a close and make my point. And my point is this. The country has been headed in the wrong direction for decades and it’s time to right the ship. We can no longer tolerate being the “ugly neighbor” to countries around the world. We need to lose our arrogance and start to get back to the basics that made this country great. We are not better than the rest of the nations of the world; but we are different.

          We believe in democracy, freedom, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness being our core rights and beliefs. We cannot sit back when we see other people’s rights taken away from them. We cannot tolerate aggression by stronger nations against weaker nations. We need to be the watchdog, but not the aggressor. We should not be forcing ourselves or our ideals on any nation, but we should stand at the ready to defend them and their own rights.

          Let’s make a pledge to return to the values our parents and grandparents taught us. Honor our country, our family, especially our parents, show respect to everyone, honor our fallen veterans and respect and support the soldiers currently serving to keep our country free. Our job is to instill this sense of patriotism in our children. Make them proud to be an American. Teach them the importance of family values, especially if they are from a broken home.

The Silent Majority just can’t afford to remain silent. Start to speak out. Get vocal. Get organized and start to take action to get our country back in the hands of the people where it was always intended to be by our founding fathers.

doug.boettner@gmail.com