“Don’t Forget Where You Came From.”

It was often stated that flashbacks were a serious side effect of some of my youthful endeavors during the ‘60's and ‘70's. As true as that may be, it isn’t necessarily a negative occurrence, especially if it helps you remember where you came from.

It is not at all rare that I do vividly recall my thoughts and feelings during my life on the Left– concerning Viet Nam, Watergate, pollution, conservation, animal rights, political correctness, and Eastern mysticism. Not only did I have a stock of rhetorical logic, but also very passionate feelings. It felt so right. I cared. I fasted often, sometimes up to three weeks; I meditated, thought good thoughts, sent out good vibes; I joined and donated to like-minded organizations; I volunteered; I voted for George McGovern; I gave blood as often as I could. I was a special, highly evolved person. (I can remember thinking that a pint of blood I had donated was going to cause a miraculous healing and life change for the recipient.)

And I was humble. I was fond of saying, “The more I know, the more I realize that I don’t know.” In translation, this made me very intelligent, more so than another when he claimed that he knew something. My thoughts and ideas in the abstract, relative universe were superior to another’s from a nonexistent, concrete universe of absolutes. I lived by faith, not by sight. I was a soulful, spiritual man.

These recollections, both of thought and feeling, help me to understand the modern fringe Left’s strident opposition to the Bush, XLIII regime, especially in regard to the action in Iraq. The frustration of losing both houses of Congress and the executive branch, while having only the judicial branch remaining as an instrument of change here, is a difficult cross to bear. This situation has constructed a great obstacle in their ability to ‘make a difference’; to remake the world in their own superior image. Consequently, most of the things happening here in the U.S. are moving back down the human evolutionary scale. Iraq, in forming a new nation upon democratic principles, can only be a failure without the Left’s esoteric direction.

The Cro-Magnons of the Soviet Union overthrew the vanguard of their people. The supposedly enlightened United States has unforgivably elected a Republican House, Senate, and President, so how in the hell could those Neanderthal Iraqis ever expect to form a civilized nation? Why aren’t people using their brains and submitting to the wisdom of the Left? The common man is ignorant and has chosen impudence over utopia. Oh, the children!

I would almost think that, due my ideological and emotional history, my empathy could enable me to have thoughtful, in-depth discussions with some to these of the fringe Left, and perhaps even change a few minds. Not so. The slightest scent of conservatism on my breath labels me as, among many other things, a racist, bigot, sexist, and homophobe. Worse, however, is the fact that I am a Christian, making my words to them but the unintelligible gruntings of an ape.

I can remember where I came from. It’s often quite embarrassing, but I am glad to remember, also, that the door through which I came hit me on the ass on the way out.