Sailing To Oblivion: June 9, 2017

Sometimes late at night, I worry about a long-standing transgression, though I’m sure the statute of limitations has expired. I did a bad thing. Yesterday’s events brought it to mind.

Actually, I had an accomplice way back then. My wife participated in the act. We stand equally guilty.

Best I can remember, it was in late summer of 1973. The crime? We both skipped work one day to stay home and watch a full day of the Senate Watergate hearings on television. Former Richard Nixon aide John Ehrlichman was testifying. The terms riveting and spell binding don’t even begin to describe the effect. The future of our country stood on one of those dangerous precipices of history and teetered toward the abyss. Readers can decide for themselves if the moment justified our untoward behavior.

The high point of the day was when the late Senator Daniel Ken "Dan" Inouye, one of the committee members forgot that his microphone was live after Ehrlichman finished his testimony. As people began stirring, Senator Inouye, a decorated World War Two veteran of the famed Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, leaned back and said, “What a liar,” an accurate but unintended denouement.

 

Mocking a Purple Heart?
How low have we sunk?

As an aside, having lost an arm in combat, Senator Inouye is a perfect example of the kind of hero that modern conservative PACs would demean and denigrate for his service, a clear sign of our sailing into dark waters. Even those who have serve our country "to the max" are no longer safe from character assassination for that service. Just ask Max Cleland or John Kerry.

This brings us to yesterday. It was, as they say, “déjà vu all over again.” When we watched John Ehrichman testify those many years ago, the country was divided into those who thought Richard Nixon was lying and those who thought his accusers and detractors were. Subsequent events provided the answer.

After the testimony of James B. Comey yesterday, an event which my wife and I once again skipped work (this time the sort that old retired people think they must do) to watch, the nation is once again divided as to the “truth issue.”

As surely as the sun rose this morning, future events will unfold the truth and the truth will shine upon America as the sun is shining on the trees outside my window at this very moment.

One can only imagine what kind of America it will shine upon, when that day comes.

Cautionary tale:
Fom the White House to prison
is a remarkably short trip.