Steadygain
TSP Elite
Thank you Norm ~ and I very deeply appreciate how your father (and my father in law) displayed the committment and dedication they did.
Let me add real quickly that I deeply believed 'they' would call me out whenever the need arose. All the more I was ready when 9/11 happened.
First please allow me to elaborate on my reflections of the 50s. WWII had ended in the recent past - a time of National Rationing - a time when WAR had a more 'definable and worthy cause' - a time when WAR itself showed how 'right would win over wrong' and how a Nation that stood for decency and honor would shine forth.
When I say the 'peaceful years' of the 50s - I mean generally speaking as a Nation and as a 'population' in general --- this was for the USA a very huge time of 'feeling proud to be an American' - of incredible peace and safety and feeling and believing we were indeed 'indivincable' - 'with liberty and justice for all'. A time when things were 'more right'. INTEGRITY -largely defined the population and most of what we knew. Children respected their elders and were good in school. FAMILY values were more the focus and in many ways life was very good. Music too - and cars - and teenagers coming of age.
In this 'Transition' children came to know the total opposite of what children in the Depression knew. The people that most deeply defined who we are and how our lives should be -- were mostly motivated by making sure their children had the best life possible. (So that's what I'm largely refering to).
I'd rather come back to the Korean War later - because it was perhaps the greatest WAR ever and is largely forgotten and unrecognized.
BUT - let me get back to what I call the 'Peaceful 50s'. This was a time when the youth - all of us - were largely grounded in the BELIEF that 'Russia' was out to take over the world. It was a time when almost everything you heard about was 'Communism' and this word was always associated with 'The most traggic and devasting plague' that could happen.
In this PEACE - We were highly 'conditioned' through the Media and through practice 'air raids' in school and that largely shaped our thinking and our view of life. We were thoroughly grounded and prepared to devote our lives to overcomming 'Communism' and it's spread to take over the world.
Einsenhower's Administration in turn had numerous operations in place that had been carefully planned - and well integrated by numerous entities - against 'Communism' and more specifically Cuba. Kennedy was faced with these plans - and had to acknowledge the overwhelming strength by which they were not only in place - but all the more 'accept the magnitude of powerful influences' by which they were expected to be implemented.
Soooo - Norm -- when I say 'PEACE' -- I mostly mean to reflect how everything working in the background (hidden and secret) by the government ---- was setting the stage for the CHAOS that would define the 60s and how so many things went wrong.
Then I'm thrilled your dad got so sick he ended up in the hospital cuz the world just wouldn't be the same without you.
Well have a great day everyone.
