Goodbye Charlie,
many years have passed
since you began to live
off the labors of America’s
taxed working classes
You and your friends
sentenced some innocents
to brutal deaths long ago,
but now a much easier form
of departure from Earth’s trials
has found you as well
And I’ll never forget
the way a piece of junk
machine informed me of what
you and yours had done
on those two days
Yes, I turned that transistorized
piece on every day during
those days; and amidst its
static and crackles I
feared to learn that
perhaps I might soon be
on my way – far away- the
victim of a forced
military induction,
conducted it was said
to help some people far away
fight a meaningless war which
they didn’t really care
whether they won or lost
And I’ll always remember
how we were told
we must help those
Southeast Asians. We were
told we must keep them
safe from communistic ways,
but I fear they didn’t care
whether they lived as communists
or capitalists – most of them
probably didn’t even understand
the difference between
the two ways of life
And so the military establishment
of those times kept sending
young men where they weren’t
really wanted – and many
of them died there – but
people such as you
and your followers
tried then to pursue
lifestyles in opposition
to that era’s culture of war,
and I won’t criticize you
and your friends for that
Yet, there must have come a time
that you and those around you
lost contact with life as it
should be lived by all mortals
despite their gender, race,
political beliefs, or hair style
And what I heard on
that radio that day,
instead of the report on
the war, shocked me at
least as much as the latest
Southeast Asian death toll.
I heard what you and
your friends had done!
And while, during those times
I prayed daily not to become
a part of Asian bloodshed,
that day I learned that blood
can also be shed
viciously and senselessly
here in the states of America
And I was very afraid
as I turned off that
small radio that day.
And that day, beside
my daily prayer for deliverance
from the violence of warfare,
I also prayed to be delivered
from the hatred and/or
insanity of people such as you
And I’ve never forgotten
that brief interlude which
featured that small radio
informing me of your foul
deeds on the west coast.
And I’ve never forgotten
the day I learned
how close to us
evil can lurk, and also
how far away from us
it can thrive
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I have lived with a Vietnamese woman who watched the Vietcong arrive in Saigon in 1975. Her father was highly educated and he and her mother left Hanoi in 1954 when communism reached the country. They were very aware of what was happening. They tolerated the French but didn't like them. But when the French left, they knew what was coming from China was worse.
After 1975, she tried six times to escape, along with thousands of others who risked their lives and lost as the "boat people." A sister and brother escaped and came to this country. She was finally brought here by her sister-in-law, primarily to sew and make money for the sister-in-law.
As you may or may not know, communism has a way of turning into capitalism through bribery and forced or cheap labor. China is a very good example of how capitalism and communism can work well together. Without any regulations except those in favor of the monied, a great deal of money can be made from the backs of the young and willing, and often, very intelligent, workforce.
The young people that despised the materialism of their parents, the hippies, were often quite naïve. For example, Jane Fonda now realizes how she was so naïve when she went to Hanoi and acted like she did.
Charlie Manson was another animal altogether. He was a sociopath that took advantage of the largess of rock stars and the naivety of hippies to create a cult. Often it is irreverent and irrational behavior that creates cults. Like Jesus, he told his followers he was Jesus, returned. Believe it or not, most people like strong leadership and are easily sucked into the aura of seemingly strong people. There is a cult of Trump today.
Ron