Today is my birthday. I came into this world premature and spent the first thirty days in an incubator. sometimes, I think I am still premature at the age of sixty-six. One’s first experience in this strange new world is doctor inflicted pain causing immediate panic. There are more humane ways to deliver a child today but in 1945 being born alive was the goal. I was in the first increment of the baby boom, in a new age of atom smashing and the fact that mankind could now accomplish what had previously been reserved for Gods. The destruction of humankind.
Baby’s do not get to choose right away. I am sure I would not have chosen to be circumcised. Why did God need foreskin? Abraham’s seed traded foreskins for land but this does not explain Abraham’s God need for foreskins. Was He in the cosmetic business? That is how they are used today to make lipstick. I think it was a form of scientific identification, like we brand cows or tag other species for identification. It’s strange that Abrahams’s God convinced Abraham to tag his male seed for generations. I bet the ranchers would love it if cows could brand themselves.
I saw Sputnik as it circled the Earth from my backyard. I was taught many falsehoods in my youth. A white man is superior to a black man, integration would be the downfall of the U. S., the Confederacy would rise again, Yankees were bad except for the baseball team, Texas was the greatest state in the union, Republicans were carpet baggers and Jews were bad because they killed Jesus.
I witnessed the space race, the cold war, had uncles that fought in Korea, and I Fought in Vietnam; for a country that loves peace we sure do fight a lot. I was an eye-witness when Kennedy was killed. We were not surprised, I heard people a week before in the halls of the high school I attended say that if he came to Dallas someone would kill him. I couldn’t believe that security allowed windows to be open in buildings adjacent to the street. It sure screwed up my birthday plans that year. I watched on T V as Oswald was murdered in the basement of the city jail by a mobster. I was ashamed of the Dallas Police’s lack of security for such a high-profile criminal. We wanted to see a trial. I was a “hippy” in the late sixties to mid seventies. Watched as the police released dogs on a crowd of peaceful demonstrators, that just wanted their rights promised in the supreme law the constitution. Followed Watergate and the demise of the executive branch of our government. Smelled a rat and was upset that they didn’t throw Nixon in jail.
All in all, life is exciting with plenty of problems, ups and downs, pleasure and pain, and constant change but I continue to have hope tomorrow will share my motto, HATE NOTHIN; EXCEPT HATRED.
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