Remembering April 30, 1975

[The former Presidential Palace of South Vietnam, July, 2002]

It just occurred to me that today is a sad anniversary.  It was 35 years ago today that North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of South Vietnam’s Presidential Palace.  (Bill Cooke and I visited it in 2002.  It’s now a museum.)  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not mooning over what might have been in terms of a U. S./South Vietnamese victory.   I came to understand that it was indeed the original “wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time.”  Still, it was sad to watch how it ended and to think of all the lives lost and the time and money wasted, not to mention the way we deserted the Vietnamese we had encouraged to depend on us. 

       Ironically, I was a newly commissioned second lieutenant going through the Basic School when Saigon fell.  That same week, the C.O. of the Basic School summoned us all to a  farewell reception for the ten South Vietnamese officers who were going through the program with us.  They had suddenly become men without a country, and the State Department was sending them somewhere.  (I know not where.)  I remember our C.O. saying something about honoring them as allies and wishing them well.  But it was anything but a smooth speech, and it was an awkward occasion—to say the least. 

       I wonder sometimes:  What America be like today had our leaders had the foresight not to get involved in Vietnam? --EFP

The Private Sector Unleashed

[The Washington Narrows, looking toward Dye's Inlet, Tracyton, WA, April 29, 2010]

This evening's CBS Evening News reminded me of that great conservative article of faith--to wit, if we just "unleash the private sector" our economy will fix itself.  

      The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lehman Brothers must not have been on a very tight leash.  He reportedly claimed over 5 million dollars in compensation before his company went bankrupt.

       Apparently, British Petroleum was not required to invest in a back-up shut-off system for the oil platform now leaking thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.  The news report priced such a system at $500,000.  BP's leash, likewise, couldn't have been too tight.

       So much of the populist conservative rhetoric we're hearing these days reminds me of the sort of binary thinking we used to call the either - or fallacy.  To hear the demagogues tell it, either we have a completely unbridled free marketplace or we have socialism.  Frankly, considering what has happened to our economy, and what is now happening to our environment, I think a little socialism would be a very good thing.  --EFP

Recent Palm-Prints

Keyport, WA, April 25, 2010.  (Taken in the course of a 12-mile bike trip to Keyport and back.  If I say so myself, I like the lighting in this one.)

I don't know:  The bedrooms may be a bit cramped.  (On the road to Brownsville, WA, April 22, 2010.)

The old girl's still got it in her!  Silverdale, WA, April 21, 2010.  (This was after she brought it in the house and I had to chase her down the hall.  I was trying to intercept her before she gave Andrea a heart attack.  Fortunately, I managed to chase Gracie back outside and to break the news to Andrea gently.  She just wouldn't drop it, and I wasn't about to play tug of war with her.  We had to bribe her with a treat in order to get her to drop her trophy.  Sad to say, but Gracie is 14 and is otherwise aging rapidly. )

The Palm-Print of the Day

Cam Hieu village, between Dong Ha and Cam Lo, Vietnam, July, 2002

The Palm-Print of the Day

Bill Cooke pointing out the Rockpile, along Highway 9, west of Cam Lo, Vietnam, July, 2002.

The Palm-Print of the Day

Our guide Trieu ("Tango") at an NVA cemetery, Vietnam. July, 2002.

Palm the Patriot

[Monument to Non-Violence, Malmo, Sweden, July, 2004]

So Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann is urging Tea Party members to "take back our country from this gangster government."
      Let me get this straight:  We have now have a "gangster government"?  I take it that the Obama Gang is getting ready to fit conservatives with cement overshoes.
      I have to wonder if Bachman isn't confusing "gangster" with "gangsta"--as in "gangsta rap."  This, of course, is the type of hip-hop music reflecting the violent behavior and attitudes of urban African-American gangs.  Does Bachmann actually see Obama as this type of "gangsta," or worse yet, is she encouraging her listeners to view Obama in this light?  
      Personally, I still think that underneath all the vitriol is an unacknowledged racist refusal to accept an African-American as our president.
      Kudos to Bill Clinton for speaking up against irresponsible, inflammatory rhetoric and on behalf of civility and common sense.  --EFP