“We didn’t start the fire

“It was always burning since the world’s been turning…”

— Billy Joel - Storm Front album (1989)

Amid what seems a current unprecedented level of flimflam and chaos, our celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July might be a good time to remind ourselves that what we’re experiencing now is far from unusual historically.

It’s pretty much the way things always have been in these United States.

The so-called “Baby Boomer” generation, born between 1946 and 1964, has witnessed — just in their 62- to 80-year time frame alone — the Korean “police action;” the Cuban missile crisis; the assassinations of two Kennedys, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X (among others attempted); futile wars waged in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran; generational revolt against the Vietnam War; numerous other political protests; the FBI siege in Waco resulting in numerous deaths; racial riots that burned down city neighborhoods; the National Guard murders of protesting students at Kent State University; the Watergate scandal resulting in President Nixon’s resignation; domestic terrorism in........

© The Leader Herald