Mood:
chillin'Topic: "Deja 1958 Over Again"
Frodo walked from the parking area all the way down to the little creek that dissected the field that was Andersonville. He had been there before. Maybe it was just because he had read Bruce Catton's great book when he was only 12 years old, and it had imprinted on his Hobbithood. He doesn't think so. Frodo could not recall any events or faces, he just felt like he had seen the sun rise in that spot, and felt himself cough.
It is much the same this day, but it is in this lifetime that he has seen the cycle of error repeated. Frodo knows that he has been this way before.
Richard Starnes would write that "we should take a brigade of US Marines and straighten out that situation," and Frodo was just young enough to believe that that was all it would take. The President of the United States would demand a response to the "threat" which a gunboat incident somewhere near the South China Sea would provoke. The demands on the economy were such that the unprecedented growth would suddenly became subordinate to the costs of defense. Ambition had soared so high that it could be masked in the paranoia fostered by an unseen but omnipotent enemy. And through it all, middle age had overtaken one generation, "tempered by war," and youth was handing the next generation their signature moment.
There is no light at the end, there is only dancing in the dark. Bruce Springsteen wails to Frodo, same lines, different actors.
"I'm a cool rocking daddy in the USA."
Posted by loveysdaddyga
at 8:00 PM EDT
Updated: Monday, June 13, 2005 8:56 PM EDT
