[Leica] Jim, Walt, Richard Jewell (LONG!)

[Al Edwards <alwards@worldnet.att.net>]

Walter S Delesandri wrote:

> standard of living, we Americans (yes, USA) have been sitting
> on our asses letting our individual freedoms and lack of governmental
> intrusion be taken away by zealous political/legislative activity.

For those of you outside the United States, I will venture to translate,as Walt
has requested.

Many Americans of Walt's generation have lived to see a transition
in the behavior of the United States government towards its citizens.
In Walt's boyhood, members of all manner of suspect groups and
races were routinely stomped on by the government, the press, and
the private sector. Americans of Japanese ancestry were put into
concentration camps, union organizers were beaten until they hemorrhaged,
homosexuals were called 'fairies' or 'perverts', nonwhites and women
enjoyed limited-to-nonexistent economic opportunities, and the FBI and
other government organizations harassed and intimidated American
citizens, keeping files on people considered subversives---Sandy
Koufax, for example---and trying to blackmail Martin Luther King
into committing suicide.

Meanwhile, Walt and other members of his generation and background
worked hard, many of them rising from having little material wealth to
a standard of living their parents never could have imagined. The
continually-expanding U.S. economy provided opportunities for
a segment of the American population to better themselves, and
many look back quite proudly on their productive lives, and
rightly so. Some members of this generation made great sacrifices
at places like Omaha Beach, Okinawa, or Korea that younger
Americans like myself should be damn grateful we never had to
make: every U.S. citizen under 35 should be forced to watch the first
30 minutes of 'Saving Private Ryan'.

Meanwhile, for many Americans, not necessarily the same
race or subculture that Walt might consider 'red-blooded',
didn't enjoy the same opportunities, and for some reason
many in Walt's generation didn't notice this. Perhaps because
they were raised in an era when it was more acceptable to
see other races as inferior, or pehaps because of a sense
that anyone the government was harassing must deserve it---after
all, they weren't harassing red-blooded Americans---Walt
and  Jim are able to see the U.S. of 1955 as a paradise
built by cheerful non-Union labor, where everyone had lots
of opportunity.

It is this that makes Richard Jewell so scary to Jim: Richard
Jewell is about as nondescript and nonthreatening a typical
white American as you can find, and for a change someone
that Jim could imagine to be himself. It is not the acts perpetrated
in the case of Richard Jewell that are anything new, it is the object.
Jim and Walt think things have been getting worse because they
are ignorant of the treatment the establishment has dished
out for generations. Things might indeed be getting worse, but
it seems that their perception of this is colored by the
the government (or the wealthy, or whoever you hate) now
screwing U.S. citizens more democratically without regard to race,
creed, or color.

I have learned much from Jim's posts to this group
newsgroup, and I read every one of Walt's posts, often
laughing out loud at his witty, biting sarcasm that is so
intelligent. These are intelligent men whose experience
and observations we would be foolish to ignore. It
is well worth our forbearance in tolerating their disgusting
and perverted behaviour at the polling place. Just remember
that when they say 'we', they are not always referring to all
U.S. citizens.

- -Al