Decatur, Alabama. I'm the guy with the curly black hair. Whenever I see the hype about the threat of the tea parties, I remind myself that things once seem a lot hairer, and the country still moved forward. Then the media was not a 24 X 7 echo chamber, functioning to exaggerate and hype rather than providing context and clarity.
Not so sure that things aren't just as hairy as they seemed in Decatur. Check out what Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin had to say in Minneapolis the other day(Tea Party mama's both). Things don't seem to have changed much among folks who want to take us "back" (or take "our" government back). Hysteria and hyperbole have been around since at least as far back as Reconstruction (read "The Bloody Shirt," by Stephen Budiansky)--only the code words have changed--and the media played a hype role then as well.
ReplyDeletePaul, intriguing comments. I want to think about it. I wrote a book, "Dragons of God/A Journey Through Far-Right America" in the 90s. You can find it on Amazon for a dollar. A the moment all this stuff makes my head hurt, particularly Palin and the talk-radio nuts. I will read "The Bloody Shirt." Take care.
ReplyDeletePaul, your seven-years-old comments really prefigured what is happening today. Who would have imagined neo-nazis and Trump.
DeleteMr. Coppola, I believe you interviewed me for Newsweek in 1983-84 for the article "They also served." (Nov 12, 1984) I met with you in a conference room at Northwestern State College School of Nursing in Shreveport, Louisiana. I remember you telling me that Indira Ghandi's assassination nearly bumped us from the issue.
ReplyDeleteIt has been many years and I now, within just the past five years, have started having my PTSD and depression treated by the VA. I ultimately lost my teaching career in a flashback meltdown.
Your article was right on target, but it was only the beginning of the saga.
Lola McGourty, MSN, RN
67th Evac 1968