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 HELLO AND GREETINGS TO EVERYONE
 
  I've been doing quite a bit of reading and thinking lately on the Ten Amendments of the Bill of Rights.
 One reason is a sad looking back through history from where they came from, up to the present, and to where this Republic has now come to, and which is now coming close to the end.
 And then I've been thinking back to the late 60's and early 70's to the Vietnam fiasco, which has now unfortunately reared its ugly head again in this election year.
 
  Below is the all important First Amendment:
 
  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

— The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
 
   No.......... "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press"............
 ABRIDGE- To shorten, to lessen, to diminish, to curtail, to deprive, to cut off.
 
   Back during the Vietnam era, there were many people who had been hawks on that conflict, who later on turned dovish.
 There were many young people who refused to go to Vietnam from the get go.
 Then there were ones who went, and became disillusioned by the whole thing while there.
 And then there were other veterans who themselves became disillusioned after backing back, and as well as all through the ensuing years.
 Those who became disillusioned had the right to speak out, and they did that and still do.
 But that right is now fading as the U.S. Republic becomes more and more police totalitarian like; as in Nazi, Communist, or whatever--take your pick.
 
  But back to Vietnam; it truly was a waste in human terms on both sides; and there really was no good reason for it in the first place--unless you consider the old guys like LBJ and other old geezers who got personally wealthy from owning the stocks of the various war suppliers; and people have said that LBJ had a stock portfolio that made him very wealthy from the blood shed of others and it all really isn't all that different from today.
 Fighting Communism was all a ruse for being there in the first place, and staying there so long; but that's all crapola.
 
  For me, I started to turn against the Vietnam conflict when I heard about the death of Rickie Whitehead in 1969.Rickie and I grew up going to the same church.
 I always admired him a lot because he never said a bad word against anybody, and always tried to use words to build people up, rather than knock them downAnd for that I would rate him right at the top of the best Christian people I have ever personally known.
 And I admire him, even today, because I know that I'm not like that, and thats unfortunate for me; but that's the way it is.
 I don't know why Ricky joined the Marine Corps in the first place, because he really never seemed to fit in a mold like that.
 But I don't think that he joined to kill and hurt people; but probably just to be a patriotic American and grow up.All I know is that his death was a waste in general; and if he died for anything, it was so the rest of us could speak what we want to say and write what we want to publish, all without retribution or being quenched or silenced.And as well as for the right of being free and safe from slanderous and libelous assaults on our persons.And that means everybody--and that's what I think.
 
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  (LUKE 21:36)
 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
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