Sunday, August 30, 2020

One Aspect Of The Sixties I Hope Never Returns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


                           I was thirteen years old, when Victor Lundberg came out with this drivel.  It set my teeth on edge.  For, while I sympathized with the anti-Viet Nam war protesters of the day, I did not feel the need to bash those who went to go voluntarily, or in obedience to their country's call.  That was a decision made by each individual, and each had a right to make it.  As did those, who protested.


                             Lundberg's polarizing is perfect for the Trump era, which makes me fearful such sentiments will return.  Set to the background music of "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic," Lundberg, as the father, ostensibly reads a letter written to his presumed teenage son, which is chauvanistic, sexist, misogynistic, and openly disregards the child's right to make a decision apart from what a parent may think.


                                  I can hear the music, and Mr. Lundberg's voice in my head.  But two phrases stand out.  One half-way through, where he says, "And your mother will always love you....because she is a woman."  That pause is there.  Oh, really?  Is this to mean that, being a woman, she is less than?  I believe so.  But the worst is saved for last.  The father ends the letter stating that if his son decides to burn his draft card--which many, at the time were doing; hell, it is a component of the musical, "HAIR"--- he "should burn his birth certificate, at the same time.  From that moment on.....another pause, "I have no son."


                                   Oh, really now; come on!  This set my teeth on edge in 1967, and it does so, now.  To renounce someone you conceived and raised over political expediency?  Or because you are too Right Wing to love a child who is not a carbon copy of yourself?  That's what it sounds like to me; the father's entire relationship to his own son is built on conditional love, so how genuine has it been up till now, anyway?   And it is not like the son is a domestic terrorist or serial killer!  Even some of those have parents or family members who visit them!  Not all; but some.


                                    I have great respect for those serving in our Armed Forces, and applaud them for doing so.  But if this type of drivel re-emerges it will set back not only the good they are doing, but the family structure they are fighting for.


                                        Where love depends not on politicization, but open acceptance!!!!!!!!!!!!!


                                          I could put the recorded letter on here, but can't bare to have such heinous crap on here!  Those who are curious--and I don't blame you-- can go on You Tube.


                                           Keep such propaganda far away from us, today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for sparing us; I do Not need to hear that again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thinking maybe I Should read it again, even though that guy makes me sick.
    Sadly, there are people like that even now.
    Perhaps ESPECIALLY now.

    ReplyDelete

  3. Victoria,
    Don't bother. Your sons are doing what
    their consciences dictate. Nothing wrong
    with that. I just thought, and still do,
    that the rhetoric in this diatribe is
    carried much too far!

    ReplyDelete