Tuesday, August 19, 2003

The definitive picture of LBJ - reader's comment

Per your suggestion, I have accessed and viewed the pix of LJB. I
agree, the guy looks unhappy. I even agree that it is a poignant
portrait of the limitations of power taken in the very seat of
unlimited power. But there my interpretation begins to differ from
yours, alas!
To maintain on the grounds of this photo that LJB and his official
standpoint vis-a-vis USA's participation in the Vietnam war can or
should be exonerated on the basis that he is capable of feeling and
expressing distress at the fate of one near and dear to him and to
assume that he was capable of experiencing the same emotion for the
thousands of men, women and children whose lives were affected by the
war is a story untold by this photo. The basic human skills required to
feel and express sorrow regarding the distress of a loved one are
commonplace. As regards the alternative, to feel for face-less
thousands, a different set of skills is required: courage,a social
conscience,and a sence of responsibility for all life,not just those of
neighbors or "kin", which should be a prerequisite for power.
The latter are not apparent in the photo I viewed, while LJB's record
during the war documents that he did not own those skills. He is not a
different caliber of Texan in my book, rather Bush is just another
example of the same kind of "a man's got to do what a man's got to do"
mentality that Texas seems to excel at producing.

Mina

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