Farmers Weekly Review

By Nick Reiher

Every so often, our son Andy will wander in to my room to tell me the events/conspiracy theories of the day.

I remind him my heart doctor really would like to see my blood pressure come down. But, now and then, his news will evolve into a good discussion, especially when he asks me, “Have you ever seen things this bad?”

It’s been a while. So much so that I needed help from Wikipedia to set the Wayback Machine to the ironically named “Summer of Love” in 1967. Some of the similarities, which stretched into 1968, were haunting.

Race riots broke out in major cities after African Americans could not take the inequalities anymore. A commission set up by President Johnson to find out why these riots were happening found that there were, indeed, inequalities in the African American communities that needed to be addressed.

In a Harris poll published in the Washington Post, 58 percent of African Americans agreed; 53 percent of whites didn’t.

Another divide was strengthening over the war in Vietnam. What was to be a quick in and out by some American advisers, was turning more violent and costly every day.

And, since this was the first “televised war,” we could see some of what was happening every night. Even the snippets we were seeing didn’t seem to jibe what we were hearing from the politicians and the military.

We would find out why when the Pentagon Papers were published by the New York Times in 1971.

Johnson, seeing his numbers dropping over the war, announced he “would not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”

A few weeks later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be assassinated, setting off more riots in major cities. A couple months after that, my Mom woke me up to tell me Bobby Kennedy had been shot and killed at a campaign event. By then, I wasn’t surprised anymore.

As it would happen, the Democratic convention was in Chicago that year, as it is this year. All of the angst in our country was centered there for several days: riots, violence, hatred. Like mayors in other riot-ravaged cities, Mayor Richard J. Daley issued “shoot to kill” orders for the rioters so that they could, in his words, “preserve disorder.”

I remember asking my Dad and Brother who this Nixon was they were talking about on the news. They just kinda looked at each other and snorted. It would take a few more years before I learned why. But in the meantime, despite a lot of good he did, he did bad, and came thisclose to being impeached and likely imprisoned had he not stepped down.

Believe it or not, a lot of this still seemed remote … until my brother Gordon learned his birthday earned him a REALLY low draft number in a televised announcement. Long story short, he enlisted, tested for a special assignment and didn’t have to go overseas.

Yet, wearing his Army jacket earned him some spittle from a little girl he passed on his way to school. Many other Vietnam vets would suffer that and much worse.

Americans never would see their government the same way again.

Including now. The divisions we have go beyond ideology; they’ve risen, or lowered to idiocy.

Fostered by a previous wariness of government, social media has turned most everyone who uses it, into a warrior, too often using half-truths and outright lies to advance their agendas. Few check the veracity of the comments.

Legitimate media — newspapers like the New York Times, that brought us the Pentagon Paper and much more, and the Washington Post that uncovered Watergate and much more – now are sneered at by many who prefer to find their “truths” on cable “news” tailored to their beliefs.

The legitimate media were the ones who told you the emperors had no clothes. They challenged, and still challenge, what government is doing and not. There is no place for conspiracy theories, except to discredit them.

What makes this worse now is that in many ways, we’re fighting the same battles we were 50 and 60 years ago. Many don’t want to take the time to research before they speak, or post, and they devalue the diminishing number of people who do just that in favor of people who say, “Believe only me.”

We should question what government does, but not devalue the process as a whole. We should not take everything we see in the media – social or legitimate – as gospel. But we need to be open to other ideas; not conspiracy theories.

Or, we’re going to be wondering in 50-60 years if that time is worse than now.

Nick Reiher is editor of Farmers Weekly Review.