Accepting War As Normal

WHEN I WAS A YOUNG INNOCENT CHILD, all those years ago, in the young and not so innocent nineteen sixties, each day I precociously watched the evening news, Cronkite, Huntley Brinkley, the old school crew, and every day, it seemed they talked about the Viet Nam War, and the race riots and war protests in various American cities. And I swear, they talked about both so consistently, daily, for so long that I got the impression that both situations, both the Viet Nam War, and the race riots and war protests, were permanent. Permanent and eternal, like school. It just seemed cozily normal to hear, each and every Monday, the numbers list of the hundreds of Americans and thousands of Viet Namese killed in action, and the fires, smoke bombs, and broken bottles in places like Detroit and Los Angeles like some routine public event. Only later in life did I fully comprehend that my early childhood was a continuous nightmare of vicarious violence. You come to understand that accepting violence as normal, with all that implies, is quite possible and quite easy. Twenty five years ago Gore Vidal pointed out that the United States, for all intents and purposes, has been at war constantly since pearl harbor. During the twenty five years since Vidal's comment, the United states has been, you guessed it, constantly at war. That's a long streak, remarkable consistency. how can any American NOT regard violence as normal, and even acceptable? If we Americans ever stopped squeezing each other for money, killing each other, and launching foreign wars, why, we might not know what to do with ourselves.