The Last One

For my last blog entry, I'd like to reflect a little on how far we've come (or not). This was mainly caused by a book I'm in the process of reading by Hunter S. Thompson called "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72." What a great journalist, what a great book. One part of the book just made me laugh, because otherwise I think I might have cried. Seems like some people never really learn. We got into a mess like Vietnam, and you think that we would have learned from that. Instead, we got ourselves into an even bigger mess like Iraq thirty years later. Here's a quote from the book: "The front page of the Washington Post carried...McCarthy's harsh warning that he was going to hold Muskie '"accountable"' for his hawkish stance on the war in Vietnam prior to 1968...Muskie seemed genuinely shaken by this attack. He immediately called a press conference to admit that he'd been wrong about Vietnam in the past, but now '"I've had reason to change my mind."' His new position was an awkward one to explain, but after admitting his '"past mistakes"' he said that he now favored '"as close to an immediate withdrawl from Vietnam as possible."' Ha, ha. Flash forward a few years, change a few names, and it's the same story. I almost typed Iraq in place of Vietnam every time. I like to stay optimistic and believe that we're slowly moving forward, but when I read crap like this I admit it's hard, especially when Bush makes Nixon look like a good President. Yet I still believe that as long as we have people who are willing to keep an eye on Big Brother and do good things in general, we can still inch forward. Here's to the future of journalism and thanks for a great class with a great instructor!!!