APOLOGY TO PETER | 2005-11-07
One of the task of commenters here is to tell Bob when he makes an ass of himself.
Which is a lot of work because it happens a lot.
One of the routine things that happens to an old man is that he tried so hard to attack the people who were a pain in the ass when he was young that he becomes a pain in the ass himself.
When I was coming up the bane of my life was the World War II Generation. You know, the crowd that has abandoned all pretences and now just calls itself The Greatest Generation.
They were really really sickening and frustrating to a young Bob Whitaker. Every time I would say we should fight integration, they would demand cowardice in the name of True Courage.
They said they couldn't be moral cowards, you see, because they had been in World War II, so they were Heroes.
Whikle attacking them, I wanted to make it clear that I had been in a little danger myself during the Cold War.
And, as an old man will, I beat it into the ground. So Peter makes fun of my pewter medals in exactly the same way as I got sick of the Greatest Generation talking about theirs.
No war hero ever made the slightest difference in real history. Moral courage is ALL that counts.
Well, I have made my point and I have made an ass of myself.
That's the story of my life.