We're at war. We were led there by a shameless, lying President. Corporate profits are at a disgustingly exorbitant level. The national debt is at an all-time high. Decent jobs are disappearing at an alarming rate. Our health-care system is in shambles. Pollution is up, accountability down. Public lands are being stripped of minerals and oil faster than the buffalo disappeared. Foreclosures have skyrocketed. The rich are becoming filthy rich and the poor just plain filthy. Open up your eyes. We need to get back to the start.

(Back home from Hot Springs).

It's probably not a good idea to smoke. But you have to decide. Over-drinking will only lead to heartbreak, but no one can tell you not to. You have to decide. You shouldn't get pregnant if your don't want a baby, but it's still your decision whether to have the child or not. Politicians, or religious saviors, cannot make our decisions for us. We were set free. We can handle it. You decide and learn to live with your decision. That's how it's suppose to work.

WHY I DISLIKE BUSH:
1. He lies.
2. He hires liars.
3. They hire liars.
4, They get caught lying and lie about their lies.
5. They finally quit or get fired.
6. Bush hires more liars to replace the liars.
7. After they start wearing us down with all those lies, the lies start to sound like the truth.
8. And we all live happily ever after. God Bless America.

THE 1968 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

My best friend was going to Elmhurst College in 1968. I was attending Northern Illinois University, in Dekalb. At least, I was suppose to be attending NIU. I was gone most of the time, campaigning for Robert Kennedy and protesting the Vietnam War in Chicago. My NIU career was rather short-lived. I flunked out after a year. Severe absenteeism. I’ve always rationalized it as there being more important things to do.

Anyway, my friend was a member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), who were one of the major protesting groups at the convention. I kind of tagged along, not knowing quite what we were getting into.

Emotions were boiling over as the convention approached. President Johnson was continuing to escalate the war, Martin Luther King, Jr., had been assassinated on April 4, and Robert Kennedy was killed in California after winning the Democratic primary on June 5. Everything seemed to be coming apart at the seams. Frustrations were running high. To add to the tension, President Johnson decided not to seek the nomination. That’s what we were gearing up to protest. Ends up he didn’t even show up at the convention. But Hubert Humphrey did. Right or wrong, he was seen as a supporter of the Presidents war policy, so the show went on.

My friend and I spent most of our time in the office of Clergy and Laymen Concerned About The War, who I would later, (1971-72) do some work for. We were given the job of trying to keep up with what was happening at the convention. We had an insider who would call us periodically. We were also planning a march for clergy and laymen on August 27, to Lincoln Park.

The organizing groups in the protest included Students for a Democratic Society, the Youth International Party (YIPPIES), the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, the Black Panthers, and behind the scene, Clergy and Laymen Concerned. From where we were at, I had the opportunity to see and/or meet Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, David Dellinger, Jerry Rubin, Rennie Davis, George McGovern, and Eugene McCarthy. I also saw Allen Ginsberg, which was the highlight for me.

When the convention voted down a peace platform, and nominated Humphrey over McGovern and McCarthy, the situation got pretty well out of hand. It wasn’t a good idea to ruin Mayor Daley’s party. The various demonstrations were broken up by 11,900 Chicago police, 7500 Illinois National Guardsmen, 7500 Army troops, and 1000 secret service agents. There never was a firm count, but there must have been between 20-30,000 protesters. As the situation worsened, there were many people seriously hurt. Vietnam didn’t have anything on Chicago those five days.

I escaped injury and arrest, although I did end up on the FBI’s subversive list, which I found out about years later. The experience was interesting and somewhat scary, to say the least. What the government will do to maintain the status quo became for me a frightening realization. The experience helped concretize my belief that those in power are not going to change or give up their positions very easily. In the face of a disastrous defeat in Vietnam, none of them were about to change course and admit it.

As it turns out, I’m having deja vu all over again. We’re right back in the same predicament. Seems we’ll never learn. I’m gearing up for 2008.

FIVE TRUTHS ABOUT THE LEFT:
1. Playing left field is not for the weak or faint-of-heart. With characters like Bush, Cheney, Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, O'Reilly, Dobson, and Robertson spreading the bull around, one needs to be careful where he steps, least he pick up some of that stink.
2. Never in one day take more than ten turns to the right. This applies to walking, driving, and reading The Bible.
3. If you intend on ruling the world from the Left, do just the opposite of Bush. You'll do just fine.
4. They say the Left are nothing but of bunch of whinny wieners. I say that's better than being a right-winged, murdering, thieving, masturbating, homophobic, who has no heart, no brain, no sense, and who is probably cheating on his wife while championing the cause of family togetherness.
5. It is much better to have leftovers than rightovers, any way you look at it.