The Vietnam War ended in 1975, but in some ways the social divides it highlighted are still with us. If you watch the documentary By Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that PBS recently aired, you will see and hear Americans arguing and fighting about what it means to be a loyal citizen. You will see evidences of social and racial divides that still exist. Indeed, there is even a segment in the program dealing with a presidential candidate (Nixon) secretly talking to a foreign government (North Vietnam) about making a deal to win the White House.
Apart from those Americans who died fighting in the war, in demonstrations or in acts of violence at that time, the ones who took sides on these issues have either changed their minds or have lived with their beliefs through these past 50 years. They have coexisted with their fellow Americans: gone to work, worship or shopping next to them. And the country has survived. It has even flourished if one looks openly at the data. For example it is a provable fact that President Johnson’s War on Poverty reduced the percentage of the number in poverty.
Thanks to the crass ignorance of President Trump we are once again in a debate about how loyal Americans should behave. It is wonderful to see the diversity of opinion. Will we show our better nature by respecting each other and the Constitution, which guarantees our right to free speech? Every generation answers that question in its own way. That is why the Constitution is a living, not a static document.
Mike Molly
Edmonds
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