Re: Peter Young On Repeating The Mistakes Of Yesterday

September 1, 2005

Re: Peter Young On Repeating The Mistakes Of Yesterday.
From: Dean Lawrence R. Velvel
VelvelOnNationalAffairs.com

Dear Colleagues:

I have been given permission to post the following excerpt from an email recently sent to me by Peter Young. I wished to do so because, in the excerpt, Young briefly but trenchantly says that this country, and the current Administration, are repeating the mistakes of prior years and are failing to learn the lessons taught by the mistakes of those years.

Excerpts From Peter Young

Date: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 2:33 AM

. . . . I must confess that the more I worked on this piece, the more outraged I got--all over again. But as venal and vile as the Nixon Administration was, it pales in comparison to the Bush II Administration. It was, I think, John Mitchell who said this country is going so far right, you won't even recognize it. I didn't believe him then, but how terribly right he has turned out to be.

It is remarkable how stunningly relevant the mistakes and lessons of the Sixties and Seventies are to today. History will help provide answers to many of our current problems if only we pay attention to it. Even Nixon knew that, although Bush II. plainly regards history as irrelevant. Even if he were aware of history, he would ignore it because its lessons do not coincide with or serve his world view. Anyway, your blog is one of the very few places on the web that have the perspective needed to draw the connections. Please know your work is valued and carry on.

Best,

PeterYoung