When Norman Mailer died I thought of two of his books, Miami and the Siege of Chicago and Armies of the Night. Both of these are about politics, the Vietnam War, and the Age of Protest.
What I like to call My Youth.
In those day people took to the streets to confront their government when their government got bogged down in an ill-conceived war that seemed to have no end in sight. We rallied, we marched, we protested.
"Hell no, we won't go!"
"One, two, three, four! We don't want your fucking war!."
"Hey, hey, LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?"
Those were the days.
Today I read about some Bridge Players who were being disciplined because they held up a sign at a tournament reading "We didn't vote for Bush."
"We didn't vote for Bush." Pretty radical.
Now they are being accused of treason and sedition.
So here we are, four and a half years into another ill-conceived war with no end in sight.
And the only people protesting belong not to the Students for a Democratic Society or the Youth International Party, but to the American Contract Bridge League?
What does that say about our country?
Polls say most Americans don't support the war. So where are they?
I guess they decided to pass this hand.