Elections...a blast from the Vietnam past

"United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting. According to reports from Saigon, 83 percent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong. A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam."

Peter Grose, in a page 2 New York Times article titled, 'U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote,' September 4, 1967. Read the whole article

And this was how many years before the war ended?!? [8--I had to look it up]

Well. jeepers. I was driving to & from LA during most of the Iraq elections hubbub (yes, we did actually stop in LA long enough to sleep, visit 2 motels, and meet with folks at UCLA). And I'm honestly not interested. jaded. cynical. tired. For the same reasons that I didn't listen to the State of the Union. It ain't gonna help me keep fighting. or strategize better. or sleep better.

This quote, on the other hand, reminds me that again how much we need to study & draw lessons from herstory. I know so little about Vietnam--heck, I don't even know if the war had started when this election happened! (I remember complaining to my mom that we always studied US history starting pre-Columbus and the farthest we ever got was maybe WWII--when some of the most pertinent stuff for us to know was the more recent history. I learned more in this article that I just read than in 16 years of school. Yipes. What will my kids learn about the Iraq war 30 years from now?

Despite the gorgeous weather, I'm feely rather gloomy about the state of the world. And feeling like I need to get involved in anti-war/occupation stuff.