I'm no activist. I'm sure I knew more about who was dancing on Club MTV that month than what was going on in Saudi Arabia. And of course I didn't want any soldier to be hurt. But even my slight mention of dissent at that time was met with condemnation. I can't imagine what people who actively opposed the Vietnam War must have gone through.
Mob mentality is mob mentality, whether it calls for blood or praise.
The same weird national energy that commands you to cry when some sports hero breaks a hundred-year old records could turn right around and be the energy that commands you to burn a book. So as John Glenn soars above us, please forgive me if I do not shudder with pride and long for a better time gone by, and wish that the country could have more men like him. All I see in the fires that power that rocket ship is the passion of a country tired of listening to people who do not agree. There's a slightly less serious version of this.