FORGET MEMORIAL DAY, REMEMBER HISTORY

“Those who forget history are bound to repeat it.” — Woodrow Wilson

Ever since I read Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States my innate skepticism has been enhanced to the point that my suspension of disbelief is virtually nonexistent. I can still enjoy a good old flight of fancy when it is obvious that what I witness is admittedly fiction or excellent poetry, but anyone claiming to speak the truth falls into the bin with snake oil salesmen, lawyers and candidates until I can determine that lying would bring them no advantage.

This rant was initiated innocently enough by watching a movie, until I noted that this is “Memorial Day” weekend, when motorists do their damnedest to keep up with the body count of war.

Even historical fiction can fail to carry me along with it if events demonstrate the writer is oblivious to nature. Already skeptical about Mel Gibson’s gore soaked yawn, Apocalypto, due to my thirty year interest in Mayan culture, I had no problem rebuking the entire movie when our hero, Jaguar Paw, was spared certain ticker extraction, decapitation and a tossing from the pyramid by a solar eclipse, only to flee through the jungle that night by the light of the full moon!!! Talk about your continuity gaffes.

Although his understanding of planetary nature may be more accurate than Gibson’s, the endearment of Al Gore to the gullible presidential savior seekers due to his book, An Inconvenient Truth, comes at the expense of their memory of his complete betrayal of voter faith in him throughout his eight year term as a vice-president elected on the strength of his environmental concerns. The Clinton administration did no more to stop environmental destruction than the present one.

Speaking of which, we now come to Dribbleya and his treating suicidal terrorists as if they were some united army he named “Al Kaeda” so he could have his disastrous war. He invaded Afghanistan to get Osama bin Laden and Iraq to get Saddam Hussein with an armed force large enough to completely destroy the infrastructure of both countries and murder twenty innocent civilians for every terrorist as the acceptable collateral damage of his insanity. He learned that trick from his father, who destroyed the infrastructure of Panama and murdered three thousand innocent civilians on the pretext of getting one villain, Manuel Norriega. Dad’s covert purpose was to disqualify Panama from assuming control of the Panama canal as was scheduled to occur in 2000. The son’s not so covert purpose is to divvy up Iraqi oil among his private oil company supporters. His overt result is making “Al Kaeda” a rallying point for the burgeoning, newly created terrorists.

I.F. Stone’s admonition to fledgling journalists was, “Governments Lie!” And the mindless gullible persist in depending on and voting for them with the aid of journalists who ignored him.

Those who forge history are bound (and determined) to repeal it.