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BBHQ Boomer Essays: |
| Our Boomer-In-Charge here at BBHQ, Hershel Chicowitz, writes frequently about current events... from a boomer perspective. He is sometimes funny, sometimes provocative, sometimes a little of each. We hope you get a kick out of our Boomer Essays. |
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| WARNING: This essay is rated P - for Political content. Some material may be too intense for some readers. Discretion is advised. If you are not up for a serious discussion on the issues of the day, there are over 300 other pages at BBHQ with nothing but fun and nostalgia; please wander around elsewhere at BBHQ. Our recommended alternative essay this week is "Cell Phones & Other Crimes and Misdemeanors." |
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Fall, 2004: Calling all Kerry supporters!! A little help here, please! I am trying to put myself inside the mind of John Kerry in order to figure out why he is doing what he is doing. And I gotta tell you, I am having a heck of a time with it. Now, I admit that I am not a Democrat, I do not munchitate on the melonball side of the buffet table. But I am a reasonable person; and I can think like a politician. (After all, I have had lust in my heart going back to before Jimmy Carter admitted that he and I are alike in that regard.) Still, I cannot get inside the mind of the Democratic nominee for president. So, I'm hoping that some of you out there... especially those of you who are solid Kerry supporters... can help me. Let's do some role-playing. Imagine you are the new JFK (as he has referred to himself), John Forbes Kerry.... you pretend you are John Kerry... and I'll pretend I am me. You know what you did (and didn't do) in Vietnam. You knew you were not in Cambodia on Christmas day, 1968, as you have claimed.
Nope; the Swift boat vets have forced you to acknowledge that you were not there. And you know that Richard Nixon was not president in 1968. In a speech commemorating Martin Luther King Day, January 20, 2003, you said:
In fact, you did not go to Vietnam until November 1968. You know that there are serious questions about the Purple Hearts you were awarded.... commendations which allowed you to leave Vietnam after only four months, as opposed to the normal tour of duty of one year. You know that the doctor who treated you for one of those Purple Hearts has testified that your injury was hardly more than a pin-prick. You know that, in 1971, as a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, you testified before a Senate committee that:
You know that you admitted on "Meet the Press" that you had personally committed war crimes:
You know that you claimed that you threw away the military medals you earned, and yet that today, they hang proudly in your Senate office. You know that there are dozens of soldiers with whom you served who deeply resent what you said about them. You know that, in 1992, in support of a presidential candidate who had dodged the draft, you said, "We do not need to divide America over who served and how."
 Given all that.... Why? OK, so you and I both know that you hunger to be president. You hunger to be president and have hungered to be president since you were a teenager, just as your Democratic predecessor, Bill Clinton, did. Well, nothing wrong with that. Well, maybe; at least there is no law against it, anyway.
Piercing the Boil And given all that... when the Swift boat veterans ads appeared, and the charges that have swirled around you for over 30 years reared up again, when the words you spoke with such passion 33 years ago played over and over again on television, why didn't you come out and say this:
That's it. Ninety-four words, and that would have done it. You could have put the whole thing behind you and turned a huge negative into a major asset. BUT YOU NEVER SAID THAT. YOU NEVER SAID ANYTHING REMOTELY LIKE THAT. Instead, you chose to smear those whose memories and evidence contradicts your claims; you threatened the television stations that aired their commercials, and you urged the publishers of their book to recall what has become a New York Times best seller. Those are not the actions of a seasoned warrior. They are the actions of a coward. Why? Why on earth did you do such stupid things? I am not talking about or questioning what happened 35 years ago. That is not the issue. I am talking about today... the politics of your presidential candidacy. Why did you not do the simple, honorable, and politically wise thing? Why did you choose to run on an issue which causes so much controversy and on which you are so vulnerable? Why did you construct a campaign which was destined to fester old wounds and further divide the electorate? I'm not questioning your patriotism, Mr. Kerry; I am challenging your political judgment. Having made such a bonehead and idiotic political calculation, how can I have any confidence that your judgment as president would be any better? Help me here, folks. Why did John Kerry do these things? What is going on inside his mind?
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Exploring My Roots: A Chicowitz History
Membership details here.
Terrific boomer memorabilia!!
Remember this?
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If you like what we're doing here at BBHQ, please help us by buying stuff through our link to Amazon.com:
| The BBHQ Album of the Month is "Old Friends Live on Stage (Deluxe Edition) (2 CD/1 DVD)," by Simon & Garfunkel. If you were fortunate enough to see them in concert last year, I do not have to sell you. The concert was terrific! This album collection includes 55 songs, plus their new recording, "Citizen of the Planet," and one of the songs sung by the Everly Brothers during the concert. The DVD was recorded during their concert in Madison Square Garden in 2003. For any S&G fan, this is a must have! But then, you knew that already, didn't you? |
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The BBHQ Book of the Month is
"Vinyl Highway," by
Dee Dee Phelps. You remember her as Dee Dee, of Dick and Dee Dee.
Together, they took a decade long ride on the rock and roll roller
coaster. It was a heck of a ride! Dick Clark, Quincy Jones, the Beach
Boys, Glenn Campbell, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Vinton... Dick and Dee Dee
rubbed shoulders with all of them. This is her "behind the scenes" story.
It's pretty cool.
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