Farewell America
by James Hepburn
for Walter,Back to the top
the first born of a New America
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness . . .
. . . when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw such Government and to provide new Guards for their future security.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
The Man of November 5
The election of the new Prince of the Universe should have had profound and far-reaching consequences for the future of the American people and for the life, liberty and happiness of Mankind.
But in the summer of 1968, the legitimate representatives of the Republican and Democratic Parties decided to pick their candidates for 37th President of the United States from among the merchandise on sale in the bargain basement.
In the decades and in the history books to come, 1968 will be remembered as the year the lights flickered out -- as a year of frustrations, regressions and shattered myths. These reversions to the past -- Prague, the Vatican, Chicago -- are the manifestations of political and economic forces seeking desperately to preserve situations of which they have long since lost control.
But the twilight descending upon the United States will have the gravest consequences of all, for it is America that sets the pace of the world, and often dictates its choices.
As the Sixties draw to a close, the peoples of the earth, left to themselves without gods and without leaders, are awaiting new decisions. The Man of November 5 cannot escape the confrontations before him. By refusing these choices, he will leave the problems unsolved.
Two Americans, John and Robert Kennedy, had the courage to meet these problems head on and break down the doors to the future. They were stopped by the frightened accomplices of the traditions on which they infringed.
When John Fitzgerald Kennedy's head exploded, it was for some the signal for toasts. One November morning the cannon boomed, the Panama Canal was closed, flags everywhere flew at half-mast, and it is said that even Andrei Gromyko wept. Adlai Stevenson declared that he would bear the sorrow of his death till the day of his own, and the Special Forces added a black band to their green berets.
Almost five years passed, and another bullet shattered the brain and stopped the heart of another Kennedy who had taken up the fight.
There was another funeral. Once again the Green Berets formed the Honor Guard; once again the Stars and Stripes flew at half-mast. One evening in June, Robert Kennedy joined his brother beneath the hill at Arlington, and those passing by can bring them flowers.
"Happy Days Are Here Again," they sang at the Chicago Convention. But the scores have not been settled.
Who killed them?
And why?
This book sets out to answer these questions. But beyond the facts and the outcries, behind the assassins and their motives, other culprits appear. The responsibility of American civilization is no longer in doubt.
Europe sometimes speaks of taking up the American challenge. But do the force of arms, the excesses of an economy and the abuses of a political system constitute an adequate example? Washington, Lincoln and the Kennedys gone, never in two centuries have the virtues and hopes on which the young Republic was founded been so gravely endangered as they are today.
By their meditations, by their decisions, by their rebellion, the citizens of the United States will bring about their Renaissance.
We dedicate this book to the youth of the Seventies. Only they will know how to face the crises that lie ahead. May they find in these pages the strength to defy the redoubtable old men and revive the forgotten glories.
Back to main Farewell America menu