Chapter IX

Kent State

Scot strolled leisurely across the center of campus.  It was a perfect Spring day.  The temperature was 75 degrees and the sun lit up a cloudless sky.  Should he call Ken and arrange a game of tennis?  Should he work on the term paper that was due in a week? Should he just walk around and enjoy the sights of the campus and observe the shenanigans of the students?  The paper was the highest priority, but, he rationalized, he could work on a paper any hour of the day, any day of the week in any kind of weather.  He could play tennis only when it wasn’t raining and the temperature was several degrees above freezing.  Scot, still the master procrastinator, settled for tennis.
            The campus was located on rolling hills about 60 miles south of Cleveland, Ohio, and 30 miles east of Akron.  Kent State, as its name implied, is a state university, and students of working class families are in the majority.
Scot had reached the lowest point of the terrain when something out of the ordinary caught his eye.  A long line of people stood, silently, side by side in the grass on the west side of the sidewalk.  They faced the old WW II military training buildings that now were the home of the campus Reserve Officers Training Corp.  The buildings were painted white and were wooden structures that contrasted with the modern brick fortress-like buildings that housed the rest of the students, administrators and classrooms.  The ROTC buildings were constructed to be temporary, but survived as an apparent tribute to the resiliency and tenacity of the primitive practice of war that justified their existence.
Fred claimed the horrendous savagery and destruction produced by WW II should have sickened all civilized people to war.  Of course that’s what they said about World War I. It was the war to end all wars.  World War I was not won on the battlefield, according to Fred.  It was a war of attrition to see which nations were willing to sacrifice more blood.  England, France and their allies were leaders in the sacrifice your own people category.  After all, they sent armies everywhere in the world to die for some resource, affront or more land to aggrandize the name of the current dictator or king.  Rarely did the conquering soldiers figure out that their autocrat put no more value on their lives than they did on the lives of the people they were slaughtering.  The senseless combative attitudes for real or imagined affronts acquired its own name: jingoism.  Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm decided to call it quits in WW I.  It wasn’t because the massive loss of life was revulsive to him.  It wasn’t because of the hideous deaths and deformities inflicted by the new chemical weapons that had been introduced into the war.  It was because the United States entered the war in 1917 bringing nearly unlimited resources for the other side.  The allies weren’t satisfied with a simple surrender.  They demanded crippling reparations and humiliating concessions.  The Kaiser decided to stop the war anyway.  
Europeans are uniquely bloodthirsty, savage creatures, Fred concluded.  They love the sight of blood.  They love war.  European men will travel to the remotest corners of the world and suffer unspeakable hardships just to kill and see the sight of blood, Fred said.  He had a theory that blood represented a fresh kill and nourishing food for primitive humans.  It is the Pavlovian bell for less evolved human nations.  “How else could the second smallest continent conquer most of the world?” Fred argued.  That mindless sacrifice is similar to soldier ants that zealously march to certain death to protect the queen and her eggs and babies.
The peace resulting from “the war end of all wars” lasted almost two decades.  New weapons were developed that could slaughter even more people.  They needed to be tried and the sacrifice limitations of other nations, as well as their own, needed to be tested.  New lands needed to be conquered, especially the Soviet Union.  Another march to Moscow was in order.  It was the only large land mass the Europeans had never conquered.
World War II was the good war.  Evil was soundly defeated, they claimed, although the defeated evil acted no differently, morally, than the victors had.  Millions of Europeans lost their lives.  Most of their property was damaged or destroyed.  The survivors were heart broken over the loss of property.  The United States was the last man standing.  It suffered the least loss of property.  It gladly assumed Great Britain’s role of keeping the world subservient to European masters.  Mainly, it had to contain the Soviet Union’s popular economic system within Soviet borders.  Europeans had spent centuries marauding around the world slaughtering people and stealing their property.  Now they were doing it to themselves on a grand scale.  They always had fought among themselves when they didn’t have a convenient easy prey on another continent.  Now they had highly advanced weapons allowing them to slaughter on an even grander scale and speedy ships and aircraft to carry them quickly to any corner of the world.  They were eager to determine who could suffer the most, who could tolerate more lives lost, who was most like their ant evolutionary equals.
The madness resulted in a Pyrrhic victory.  Both sides were too devastated to maintain their empires.  It fell on the U.S. to pick up the European mantles, Allies and Axis.
The United States now was in its second major war since WW II ended. Campuses across the nation obligingly cranked out young officers to lead the way into the latest primitive follies of mankind.  Young men and old politicians learned nothing from past lapses into madness.
The U.S. had emerged from World War II with no infrastructure damage to rebuild at great expense and sacrifice.  It had no broad landscapes of ruin.  So, by default,  mainly self-appointment, it became the world’s referee, its global policeman, it’s “reluctant” savior, its moral guide for the planet, its exceptional nation, a shining city on the hill.  Victories in Europe and Asia were proof that God smiled down on it with approval and blessings.
As the consequence of its superior economic and political systems, it now was burdened with saving the rest of the world from itself, or at least leading by example.
All rational Americans accepted these premises.
Apparently, there still were people, even in the U.S., who were too dense to grasp the full picture, Scot thought to himself.  The people in the protest line were completely silent.  They held signs with terse admonitions such as “Stop the war!” and “End the senseless destruction now!” This misguided group was not thinking long range.  The U.S. had to act now, no matter where in the world evil raised its ugly head, to stave off greater world destruction.  Hadn’t two devastating world wars taught us that lesson?
Anger welled up inside Scot.  Didn’t these people realize that our survival, the survival of the world, depended on mercilessly killing a few people to send a message that we would fight fiercely to defend our way of life, which just happened to be the best possible way of life for everyone?  Our leaders warned us about the “Domino theory,” the insidious Communist plot to take control of the world one nation at a time.  European nations made the mistake in the 1930s of believing Hitler wanted only a couple border states, then a couple more and allowed Germany to expand and grow in military strength until it was too late to stop it without all out war.  We were on to their schemes.  We were not going to allow the underestimation of a Hitler to happen again.  We’re Churchills, not Chamberlains now.  Our courageous leaders were determined to nip it in the bud.
Scot looked at all the faces of those cowards who were ready to betray their nation and its duty to the world.  Were they ready to sell out to the Communists?  He recognized some of them.  There were at least two professors.  He would never take any more of their courses.  Then he saw his old friend Kevin.  Kevin was a fellow dorm counselor in Clark Hall.  It was he who informed Scot that dorm counselor positions were open.  Scot applied hoping he would get to work with Kevin.  At dorm meetings, he had always been so quiet, so lacking in opinions.  Yet, here he was, standing out like a sore thumb for a cause so wrong.  In meetings, he never said anything unless asked by the head counselor.  Scot assumed Kevin devoted all of his time to his studies except when he was eating and attending meetings.  How was he able to learn enough about foreign affairs to dare to challenge the wisdom of his national leaders?  Our leaders had information not available to the rest of us for security reasons.  How could anyone question their decisions?  They were good Christians and would do only what was unavoidable in matters as serious as war.  At the first opportunity, Scot was determined to set him straight.
As Scot passed the last of the two-dozen traitors, he cast one last glare at them.  He was so upset he knew he wouldn’t be at his best at tennis.  He rarely beat Ken anyway.  Ken was one of those natural athletes.  He seemed to consume his weight in food every day but remained thin, trim and athletic.
The term paper was out of the question also.  There was no way he could concentrate on it.  He wasn’t worried.  Scot had developed an uncanny ability to provide the information the professor wanted.  Usually this involved statements so broadly worded that the professor could fill in the correct answer.
Scot decided to meander around campus until his emotions settled back to normal.  He made a sharp left turn and headed to Lilac Lane.  The lilacs were in full bloom and their aromas were heavenly.  The University had planted the lilac bushes on both sides of a concrete sidewalk.  The lane was about 100 yards long.  Everyone slowed down to half speed to take in the natural treasure and aromas.
Scot arrived at Clark Hall just in time to get lunch before the cafeteria closed.  A few students loitered there.  Scot’s eye caught sight of a beautiful brunette in the far corner.  As his eyes went into long-range focus, he recognized Stephanie.  He could join her for lunch.  Scot met her in a General Science survey class.  Her last name was Marble, so she was seated alphabetically next to him.  Stephanie was near perfect in every way.  She was bright, beautiful and extremely pleasant.  This, she claimed, was her downfall.  Every guy assumed she had to be committed to someone, so none ever asked her out on a date.  Scot had labeled her “first tier” and never considered dating her.  If her complaining was an invitation to ask her out, he never fell for it.  Even knowing she was available, he felt too intimidated to ask her out even for some innocuous occasion such as a campus event.  Scot’s favorite place for new dates that were not clearly dates was the experimental theater.  Every Sunday afternoon, the theater department screened new, short films produced by students.  The time of day, location and nature of the event left unclear the reason for attending.  Scot wouldn’t even try the experimental theater ploy.  He was certain any relationship was doomed to disaster and heartbreak.
Scot was on a beeline to Stephanie’s table when he spotted Kevin, sitting alone.  His passionate feelings returned and made him veer off his course to the most pleasant thing on campus to engage in one of the most unpleasant things on campus—confrontation over the Vietnam War.
“Hi Kevin.  May I join you?” Scot asked politely
“Sure,” responded Kevin.
Kevin was short, thin and somewhat effeminate.  For him to take a passionate stand seemed out of character.  To stand in public holding a minority position was something Scot never expected to see him do.
“What’s the group that protests in front of the ROTC buildings?” Scot asked without any further formalities.
“We’re a group of students and faculty that believes the war in Vietnam is unjust, immoral and criminal,” Kevin answered succinctly.  “Want to join us?”
 “No thanks.  I’m far too patriotic to betray and undermine my government,” Scot responded with a slight air of righteousness.  “War is a time when everyone needs to come together and form solid ranks to end it as soon and painlessly as possible.
“Does your definition of patriotism include roaming the world killing innocent people with the most hideous weapons known to mankind ?” Kevin challenged him.  “Several international laws say that is the worst crime a nation can commit.  The supreme crime in WW II was aggression.  At the Nuremberg Tribunals, dozens of Nazis were hanged for acts of aggression.  Following your leaders, no matter what they do is not patriotism.  That’s jingoism.”
“We must defend ourselves, or we will be overrun just like the Europeans were by the Germans and Italians,” Scot countered.  “Any sign of weakness will only encourage our enemies that we will not defend ourselves or our interests.  Real aggressors will consider that an invitation to overrun the world.  It’s better to make a few minor sacrifices now than make huge sacrifices later.  I was over there.  Those people are poor and have little to lose.  They fight like fanatics even when they know they don’t stand a chance of winning.  They aren’t capable of human feelings and compassion like we are.  They would send their small children, with explosives wrapped around their waists, into a club or other gathering place for Americans to detonate themselves as suicide bombers.  They are more like a stampeding herd of wild animals.”
“How many thousands of those children died from U.S. bombs, lethal gases, helicopter gunships, M16s, cannons and tanks?  
"How are they going to attack us,” Kevin continued, a touch of patronization couching his words.  “Are they going to swarm ashore by the millions in California riding water buffaloes and wielding sharpened rice paddy hoes?  It’s ridiculous to think they are any threat to us.”
“They will conquer one nation after another.  They already invaded South Vietnam.  When that war is won, they will turn to Laos and Cambodia.  Then they will conquer Thailand and spread across Asia like Genghis Khan getting stronger and stronger until they are an unstoppable behemoth,” Scot responded.
“I believe your history is a bit lacking,” Kevin responded, now in a distinctly condescending voice.  “It was the U.S. that intervened in Vietnam with the intention of taking control and establishing a foothold in Indochina.  Then IT would take control of the neighboring countries one by one.  The French controlled the area until 1954.  Did you know that?  The French were defeated by the Vietnamese who didn’t care to be  controlled by a foreign nation.  The two parties signed the Treaty of Paris calling for an orderly and peaceful withdrawal of French forces, followed by an election two years later establishing a democratic Vietnamese government.  An elected government would be socialist, led by Ho Chi Minh, so the U.S. took action immediately to prevent a real election.  It set up a puppet regime in the south to prevent any Vietnam-wide election.  U.S. leaders believed that there, as well as at home, the people do not know what is best for them.
“The Vietnamese fought the French and defeated them.  They were willing to do the same to the U.S. or any other nation that tried to rule them.  They have a 3,000 year history of repelling and expelling invaders.  All their monuments celebrate war victories.  There was nothing honorable or noble about the U.S. intervention.  It will be defeated just like all the other invaders.  American lives will be sacrificed in vane.  Don’t you want to prevent unnecessary American military deaths and mutilations?”
Scot was speechless.  He didn’t know whether Kevin was making up the history or had been brainwashed by some Communist professor.  He was certain Kevin’s version wasn’t true.  Scot had served in an intelligence unit, and was confident his instructors and superiors would have told him and his fellow servicemen if the U.S. had acted in any way other than nobly.
“This nation has a long history of sacrificing for the good of others.  All of our foreign actions are generated by altruism first.  Look at how we came to the rescue of the South Koreans when Communist North Korea criminally invaded them in 1950.  We sacrificed nearly 30,000 American lives to bring freedom and civilization to that godforsaken place.  I spent time there.  It’s cold, barren and hostile, but we traveled all the way over there, spent millions of dollars and saved them from the horrible North Korean dictatorship.  What did we have to gain for ourselves?”
“In fact,” Kevin interjected, “the U.S. was the primary cause of the war.  As WW II was ending, U.S. and Soviet leaders met to determine what the conquering nations would do to restore order.  Germany was collapsing, but Japan was showing the will to resist for a longer time.  The Soviet Union and Japan were on opposite sides, but they avoided hostilities after the first couple of years.  Neither had anything to gain from hostilities with each other.  The U.S. wanted a commitment from the Soviet Union to come to the aid of the U.S.  The agreement concerning Korea was to divide it then disarm the occupying Japanese soldiers.  They picked an arbitrary dividing line, the 38th parallel, since no natural line of demarcation was found.  The Soviet army would disarm Japanese soldiers above the 38th Parallel. The U.S. would disarm those below that line.  Then Korea would be free to determine its own destiny.
“Instead of withdrawing from the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, the U.S. gathered Koreans, most of whom had collaborated with the Japanese, and put them in control.  These U.S. puppets refused to participate in the reunification of the peninsula unless the North adhered to U.S. wishes.  North Korea refused.
“The Soviet Union, on the other hand, withdrew.  Kim Il Sung became the ruler.  He and his followers had fought determinedly against the Japanese.  Their resistance meant fewer Japanese soldiers were free to fight and kill Americans.  Rather than show gratitude, the U.S. totally opposed Kim Il Sung because he had socialist leanings.
“When it became clear the U.S. was determined to squash the will of the people, the North Koreans invaded the South.  Since South Koreans were not happy with their imposed leaders, North Korea was able to conquer the entire southern peninsula.  The U.S., always looking for another war, invaded Korea in return.
“Rarely, if ever, did the U.S. come to the aid of some nation unless it or its corporations had something to gain.  Altruism is not a characteristic that defines the U.S.”
Scot couldn’t believe everything he was hearing, mostly for the first time, could possibly be true.  History was not his favorite subject in high school, but he had nearly total recall and had never heard any of his teachers give that slant to post-WW II history.  Of course, his history books never went past WW I anyway.  He was not about to accept anything until he researched it himself or found a trusted person to confirm the story.
“Doesn’t it bother you that you are not loyal to your country.  You don’t care that you are a traitor?”  Scot challenged Kevin defensively,  emotions welling up in his throat.  Scot was fed up with all the disloyal, blame-American-first propaganda Kevin was spouting and its creeping spread across the campus.
“You are confusing patriotism with jingoism,” Kevin repeated to Scot.  “A true patriot is someone who practices the values, ideals, principles and traditions advocated by our founding fathers and inscribed in our Constitution.  Read the Declaration of Independence for the best synopsis of what we are supposed to stand for and what we should oppose.  Those who support this war are following mortals, corrupt mortals, who are murdering innocent people by the millions with horrible weapons, acting like savage, subhuman thugs and violating many traditions and laws: national, international and natural.  The U.S. abides by one law only: preservation and perpetuation of the corporation.
“The Constitution requires a declaration of war from Congress.  That wasn’t done for the Korean or Vietnam Wars.  The Gulf of Tonkin incident that was used to justify expansion of the war into North Vietnam was a fabricated incident. Rather than admit they were duped so easily, Americans prefer to overlook hideous crimes by its leaders.
“Those who blindly, mindlessly follow a leader or group of people are jingoes not patriots.  For example, those who oppose the American Civil Liberties Union are good examples of jingoists.  The sole purpose of the ACLU is to protect and preserve the Bill of Rights.  Those who oppose the ACLU, oppose the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, the Founding Fathers and the nation.  Those are the real traitors and subversives.
“Those who challenge the leaders to make sure they are abiding by the laws are the real patriots.  It’s ironic how those who claim you can’t trust the government are the first ones to take the government’s word on faith when it embarks on something as serious as war.”
“Are you saying I’m not a patriot even though I served in the military voluntarily?” Scot challenged him.
“That’s the least patriotic thing you can do.  You were not only violating the Constitution and international law, you were an accessory to a hideous crime.”
“Let’s assume what you have told me is true, but I was unaware of those facts.  Does that make me an accessory to a crime?”  Scot asked betraying a hint of testiness.  He felt someone who was a stickler for the law would have to agree that you are innocent until proven guilty, and if you don’t know you are committing a crime, you can’t be convicted of that crime.
“I agree entirely,” Kevin responded.  “Plus, there is evidence that a person is incapable of analytically discriminating good from evil until his or her brain totally matures.  That seems to happen at about age 25 or higher.  In most cases, it never happens.  Until that time, your moral code is what your parents and other authority figures tell you it is.  We accept that what they tell us is moral.  However, morality is relative.  Ethics defines universal good and evil.
“The U.S. was the last industrialized nation to abolish slavery, and then only after the most lethal war in its history.  Parts of the U.S. were determined to preserve slavery no matter what the cost.  Hundreds of thousands off people were willing to die to preserve slavery.   Were those people right to follow their leaders?  Was that a righteous cause?  Why didn't they know slavery was evil?"
“What does that have to do with Vietnam?”  Scot wanted to know.
“It’s a hint that this nation has a long way to go to reach enlightenment and civilization,”  Kevin responded matter-of-factly.  “The Vietnam War is proof that it still is no where near that status.  The U.S. claims it is morally superior and on a higher civilization level which justifies its intervention, usually ruthlessly, in the internal affairs of other nations.   The facts indicate just the opposite is true.
“Today, the U.S. is determined to keep capitalism afloat, no matter what the sacrifice and cost of its life-support.  That is the top priority of both major parties.  It will be the last nation to abandon that primitive system.  Capitalism is the Plantation system in a slightly modified form.  The U.S. was founded on a class system of masters and slaves.  Today it is a class system of corporations and wage slaves.  The U.S. empire will expire with a master-slave class system because it has become so rigid.  It’s success or, more accurately, its mastery of theft, coercion, intimidation and mass murder deceives it into believing it has the best, most workable system.  It interprets success as divine approval of what it is doing, even if that success involves mass murder, plunder, pillage and mutilation.  It will cling to that system like a tree to a decaying apple in the Fall.  It will rot from the inside for failure to restructure its external environment.
“You can’t convince Americans to become moral using logic.   You can’t shame them into civilized behavior.”
“What are you accomplishing by standing quietly displaying signs,” Scot wondered out loud.
“We get people like you to become curious.  Usually they will seek more information.  Their questions will expose the propaganda and deception surrounding this war and convert some of them to opposition.
“We don’t need to convince most of the people.  We only need to convince a small percentage: about 10 to 15%.  A determined minority can covert the majority, especially if that small minority is resolute and earns and keeps its credibility.
“Only one-third of the people supported our revolution.  One-third was non-committal and one-third sided with the British.  That was enough to defeat the most powerful nation in the world.”
“Which of the three sides would you have been on, and which do you think I would have been on?” Scot asked.  The question would force Kevin to admit that his opposition to his nation today would have prevented the creation of the nation he now can criticize because of its freedoms and enlightened ideas.
“That’s easy,” Kevin responded with just a little too much self-assurance in Scot’s mind.  “Conservatives like you want to keep things the way they are.  They oppose change whether they are in England, the Soviet Union or were in Germany or Italy in the 1930s.  Conservatives are lock step, close ranks people wherever they are.  They have total loyalty to their tribe.  They support rights and freedoms for themselves, but not for others.  They supported slavery, but opposed the 40-hour work week and the right for women to vote.
“I and my friends, on the other hand, support individual rights and freedoms for everyone, whether they are here, in Europe or in Vietnam.  The American revolution was about universal ideals and the removal of an authority figure such as King George III.  It was for the disintegration of the tribe and its alpha, authoritarian leader.
“Liberals are capable of empathy.  We are capable of compassion for the Vietnamese.  Conservatives don’t have those abilities  They are dominated by their tribal, animal, stimulus-response instincts, so they can’t recognize that what the U.S. is doing in Vietnam is not only wrong, but evil and criminal.
“Hypocrisy is a prime, if not the major, indicator of a conservative person.  A conservative claims we should not trust the government.  He claims the government is incapable of doing anything well.  Only the market can do things efficiently.  By that logic, if a successful CEO goes to work for the government, he suddenly becomes an incapable bumbler.
“Yet, the conservative believes the government should have the power to execute him or cage him for the rest of his life.  Of course, it’s his confused mind instructing him to take those positions.  He believes he will never be the target of a government investigation.  Why?  Because he believes the government couldn’t mistakenly believe he was involved in something illegal.
“Conservatives are very uncomfortable using the logical and analytical sectors or the brain, mainly because they don’t do it very well.  They have been wrong so many times in the past.  Instead, they put more trust in spiritual, supernatural guidance like a god or the invisible hand of the marketplace.  They also tend to believe that leaders have been chosen by God, or at least have the blessings of God.  They are more inclined to be authoritarian and put blind trust in autocratic leaders, even while claiming they don’t trust their leaders.
“Conservatives can’t conceptualize.  They are unable to muster the logic that would reveal the contradiction between their natural instincts to behave like a member of a herd and a modern, enlightened, civilized, righteous individual.  Conservative leaders lie consistently and blatantly to their rank and file showing the contempt they have for the intelligence of their followers.  That contempt is rewarded with unquestioning loyalty.  It’s as if blind loyalty is their highest virtue.  That’s the instinct that preserves ant colonies and bee hives.  Conservatives function at a hive or colony level going into denial about humanity.
“The primary purpose of the U.S. is to defend and preserve capitalism, or more accurately, corporatism.  It will go to any expense, make any sacrifice to prop up capitalism.  It will send its armies to the farthest points of the world to kill any number of people to make capitalism work.  There is no weapon so hideous that it will forgo using it if it helps capitalism succeed.  It will stomp on any right or liberty to make capitalism function.  It will destroy any trappings of civilization that threatens capitalism.  Then it's advocates will say: 'See, it works.'
“Capitalism believes that profit is good.  Everything else is subject to sacrifice.  If war generates profits, war is good.  If sickness generates profits, sickness is good.  If suffering generates profits, suffering is good.  Profits also mean that the wealth must be concentrated in the hands of a minority.  The Capitalist equation means war, sickness and suffering for the many and profits for the few.
“Capitalism is a convenient agent, an intermediary.  It negates most moral reservations.  Clinical studies proved that most people will behave criminally if instructed to do something harmful, unethical or illegal by an authority figure.  The corporation becomes that authority, the instrument, the figure allowing its members to commit crimes with little or no guilt.”
There was a moment of silence.  Scot concluded that it was his turn to respond.  “We enjoy prosperity never before experienced.  We live a good life with material abundance.  It’s not like some Feudal nation where the nobles enjoy exorbitant wealth and the peasants suffer, sacrifice, and barely survive.  Most of us live very well and want for no necessities.”
“Most of us want for a soul,” Kevin responded with sincere passion.  “We’re wealthy because we take food from the mouths of Third World babies.  Most or our wealth has been extorted from other parts of the world.  My friends and I protest because we want our nation to be civilized, not a cruel thief that will steal from babies and dark skinned people of the world.  We don’t want a vile world where ‘might makes right.’
“I often get asked why I don’t just leave this nation if I don’t like the way it’s people act.  Well, you can’t leave a world where primitive aggression dominates.  It always will reach you sooner or later.  You can’t run away from it.  Would Hitler ever have had enough control of land that he would have been satisfied?  Alexander the Great conquered the known world, only to find out there was more land beyond what he had just conquered.  He had an unquenchable urge to conquer the newly revealed lands.  Only when he reached lands around modern day India and Afghanistan that were so alien and hostile that his soldiers panicked, did he stop his world quest.    
“My friends and I listened to self-righteous buffoons condemn Germany for its abuse of minorities, its aggression into other nations, its mass murder of ethnic groups and incarceration and execution of advocates of different ideas.  Then we looked at ourselves and see minorities abused, exploited and even lynched.  Women were second class citizens.  We saw cruel and harsh treatment of lower income citizens.  We saw jails with more inmates than any other nation in the world.  We saw more similarities with our recent foes than differences.  The old school has ideas that are relics of animal behaviors and relationships.  We jettisoned all the old ideas.  Then we demanded that ideas and  customs go through a new test, a test like the U.S. rulers apply to others but exempt themselves.  Only those ideals, customs, behaviors and traditions that are enlightened, humane and righteous are accepted by us.“
Kevin placed his dishes, silverware and cup on his food tray and rose to carry it to the conveyor belt that would ferry it to a dish washer in some remote area of the cafeteria.  “Well my friend,” he said, “I have much work to do and, as much as I would love to discuss politics and history all afternoon with you, I must go study and write papers if I’m ever to graduate.”
Scot sat silently for a couple minutes digesting what he had just heard.  It just didn’t feel right.  He knew enough history to know that those who don’t prepare to defend themselves get conquered.  As civilization advances, food production increases and communications become more sophisticated, humans form into larger entities.  Originally, there were groups of a few families.  Those grew into tribes of hundreds of people.  As nature became harnessed for human use, cities of thousands of people became possible.  Those expanded into city-states which always needed to grow larger, for defense, then offense, as Rome did.  Then, in the 19th Century, nation-states replaced city-states.  Logically, continent-states would be next.  However, travel modes and communications had become so elaborate and sophisticated that territory no longer was the major determining factor in groupings.  Only time will tell if our leaders have more wisdom than their predecessors, he told himself as he rose to deliver his tray and uneaten scraps to the conveyor belt to be discarded.  How many bellies in the Third World could those scraps have filled, he wondered?