Hitler, the Great Depression, and the Dust Bowl were my Coming of Age experiences. Tonight Frontline had a story about how the past three administrations just didn't get it about Global Warming. A rancher in Texas talked about how it's been so dry that the grasshoppers are coming back. He was discussing how TXU shouldn't have been thinking about coal-powered plants. And then they went on to talk about how the buyout included a provision for canceling most of them. The woman who is mayor of Dallas was interviewed. Remember how you and I chased the Representative from that region? Only he is still in Congress. I'm having a senior moment and can't think of his name.
I remember grasshoppers which would land on wet cloth and try to eat it when they couldn't find vegetation. But I also remember how Hitler was big on scapegoating, not just Jews and Negroes, but also any persons he considered crippled, mentally retarded, or sexually deviant. He had his own way of discussing "human values."
Even before the invasion of Poland, my mother would tell us that what turned Germany into such a different country was that when the other countries exacted too much war reparations from Germany, the country became
very poor. She was born in 1899 and was of the age to be touched by the hatred of Germans during WW I, although her German ancestors had come to the States several generations before.