Later: At the end of a three year Air Force assignment to the USAFE hospital in Lakenheath England, it was about time to come home to our real lives. For our last trip to the Continent, we decided on camping through France. I had several weeks of leave and though we’d been to France often, we hadn’t ‘toured.’ So we loaded our diminutive Morris Minor with camping gear and took the Ferry to Calais. It couldn’t have been a more perfect trip. Somewhere in the middle we awoke in our tent and simultaneously noticed that our teeth were slightly purple [so we changed to white wine]. The trip back to Paris from the South was our only autoroute
leg [superhighway], and our top-speed-low-sixty-miles-per-hour Morrris was definitely out classed, but we made it to the outskirts of Paris at midnight. The next morning, we decided that a ride down the Champs-Élysées would be a nice way to end our European adventures before getting on the Ferry, and soon onto the plane home.
Totally by chance, without our even really noticing, we were the last car allowed onto the boulevard that day. It was inauguration day for Giscard d’Estaing who had defeated François Mitterrand. Neither of us spoke anything more than "menu" French, so after two weeks of wandering, we were news-dumb and had no clue we were crashing a presidential parade. The streets were lined with spectators who were as amused as we were with our toy British car as a one-car parade. They waved their flags, laughed, and clapped as did we – basking in our short-lived fame. It was, indeed, one fine Swan Song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM-E2H1ChJM&ab_channel=CortoMaltese86
Bogart’s girlfriend in the movie was an actual refugee and the script did not call for crying. It was spontaneous and Curtiz let the cameras roll. Result is one of the most powerful scenes in the history of film.
As an unlikely Gallophile, I agree. One stereotype that is incorrect is that of the rude French waiter. If you try, even a bit (I have only two years of high school French) to speak their language and not insist on them speaking English, they will treat you well.
I think my view of France is like Jefferson, love the culture but hate the way they went about the revolution. Speaking of Jefferson, I think this sentiment is appropriate in light of what happened.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/08/46/7c/08467cd017238fbae1ec4cbd83cda4b9.jpg
As long as you have an apologist and sympathizer in the White House for flagrantly extremist and inflexible attitudes by some in a group, and then a persistent partisan support system that just rationalizes and tolerates such thinking, well, people die.
Again, keep minimizing or ignoring the prevalence of Axis 2 behaviors and consequences, good luck with those outcomes.
The operative word is, WHEN there is violence on college campuses that occurs from these inflexible and rigid “students” who are demanding their agenda and rhetoric trumps everyone else who does not goose step behind them, well, then what?
And to bring it back to psychiatry, when these fraudulent leaders and opinion leaders who rule, with an almost iron hand mind you, and dictate the paradigms to psychiatric diagnosis and care, again, WHEN people have more horrid morbidity and mortality from these failed and selfish agendas, when do people who really know better finally step in and get responsible, appropriate change initiated?
The human condition, we have to endure misery and pain to make change that could actually improve peoples’ lives. How many times do we see the signs and symptoms before the outcomes result in anguish and despair? And yet, we have incompetent, disingenuous, and dishonest people setting the precedence for our lives in so many facets.
Hey, just my opinion, I could be wrong. Actually, after all these years saying things suck around here, maybe I am not so wrong.
When the pain and anguish touches you personally, then you think differently, and maybe then act differently too?
Welcome to the human condition, 2015, but the same old crap as was in 1915, or even 1815, hell, betcha even 1515…
My wife and I have been going to France for over 20 years. The French people always surprise us with their warmth and openness. What is happening now is tragic and not what they or any country deserves.
Steve Lucas
We’ll see if Europe is serious…sadly I believe the ruling class will be more bothered by the assassination attempt (they tried and failed to take out Hollande) than the civilian casualties. The usual pattern with these things is that we and they go back to the usual pattern of rationalizations after a couple days of sadness and rage.