Ya know, I used to look at my dad (a WW II vet) and couldn’t understand why he was into all this patriotism thing-—I was I my late teens till early twenties. I could never say I was a raging lefty, but did look at my father as kind of an Archie Bunker charicature—actually, they had the same accent but my father didn’t trample the English language as Archie did. He was a Buckley-Goldwater guy from the beginning even though we didn’t have National Review in the house. He always hated the NY Times. Actually, on some level, if he could have hibernated thoughout most of the sixties and a good part of the seventies and emerged in 1980 when Reagan got elected, he would have been a happy man. Unfortunately, he died in 1986 at 66. I hate to think what his rection would have been if he were here to witness 9/11. Granted, Pop was not the most tolerant guy in the world, but it may be just that I am approaching old farthood myself—still on the sunny side of 50—my views are coming more into line with his. Attitudes toward our soldiers from th antiwar left are still regurgitating the same puke as in the Vietnam days. You may not agree with an administration’s policy, but you always have to respect the men & women(now)who are over there somewhere fighting for your sorry ass. Pop knew about commies and fascists and was a young guy(early 30s) during the Joe McCarthy era. As far as radical Islam went I really don’t think he gave it much thought even though he was alive when Khomeini held our folks for over a year. He probably thought is was just an isolated regime that needed a good a$$ kicking. Patriotism needs a good dusting off and placed in a prominent position in our hearts—minds—and souls.
Great post...our fathers would have ‘hit it off’.
Tyranny of The Soccer Moms
That is one scary phrase mate.