17 And no matter how much they wanted to sit at the front of the bus,
18 With other white people.
CHAPTER 1521 As it happened, the civil rights thing kind of stirred up a lot of controversy,
2 And not just about black people,
3 Because a lot of the young people who wanted the blacks to get their civil rights had noticed some other things about the Most Chosen Nation on Earth,
4 Such as the way they kept stockpiling more and more nuclear weapons,
5 Until they could have destroyed the Soviet Union a hundred times over,
6 Which just wasn't necessary,
7 And might not be very responsible either,
8 aUnless you weren't as kind and nice a nation as you told everybody you were,
9 bWhich how could you be anyway if absolutely everybody in the whole world hates the Yanks, including all their friends and allies?
10 cBesides, what was this little business in Vietnam all about,
11 dWith a bunch of Yank advisers egging the South Vietnamese on to renew some ancient war with their relatives in the north,
12 eAnd were the Yanks going to start throwing their weight around in some underprivileged country that couldn't fight back?
13 And now that we're on the subject, how can it be right that America is so rich and prosperous,
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14 When practically everyone else is dirt-poor,
15 fEspecially if the Yanks are as nice and just as they say they are?
16 And even though not many people were talking this way,
17 gThere were enough conversations here and there that a musician named Bob Dylan started writing thoughtful songs about it,
18 hAnd a poet named Allen Ginsburg started writing thoughtful poems about it,
19 iAnd a writer named Norman Mailer started writing thoughtful essays about it,
20 jAnd a novelist named Kurt Vonnegut started writing thoughtful novels about it,
21 kAnd students on certain college campuses started listening to the thoughtful song lyrics and reading the thoughtful poems and essays and novels,
22 lAnd then started to wonder,
23 mIf just maybe there was something terribly terribly wrong with the United States of America,
24 nSomething that would have to be seen to,
25 oIn the not too distant future.
CHAPTER 1531 And then President Kennedy went to Dallas,
2 And got assassinated,
3 pOn camera,
4 So that his blood got splattered all over Jackie's beautiful pink suit,
5 And if someone hadn't murdered Lee Harvey Oswald on television,
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