Decision '72..

The wise and wonderful Mom over at 'The best is yet to be' recently posed the question,'Who was the first person you ever voted for to be President of the United States?'

Congress had barely passed the law lowering the voting age when,as a freshly minted 18 year old,I threw myself in earnest into the political pool way back in 1972.

Those were heady days indeed!..

Youngsters nowadays have no clue about the kinds of things that weighed heavy on the minds of my generation.

The state of the world,and the socio-economic considerations that desperately needed to be addressed!

...for example.

**International terrorist groups dominated the nightly news!**

The Irish Republican Army bombing city streets at will,Pakistani extremists taking Israeli athletes hostage,and executing them at the '72 Olympics,and commercial jets being hijacked like there was no tomorrow..

**Homicidal third-world despots held their country in a relentless totalitarian grip**

..Idi Amin boasted that his role model was Adolph Hitler!

**We were embroiled in an un-winnable war in Vietnam**





**Natural disasters crippled large sections of the country**



Hurricane Agnes,the worst in U.S. history, slammed into the Eastern Seaboard,causing a whopping 3 billion dollars in damages!..

**Don't even get me started on the energy crisis!**


Oil shortages around the globe caused the price of gasoline to soar above $1.00 a gallon!!..

Oh,..there was a bright spot to be had for sure.
A phenomenal young swimmer by the name of Mark Spitz,electrified the '72 Olympics by winning an unprecedented SEVEN gold medals!





Boy howdy,..things were sure a lot different 36 years ago, when I cast my very first vote for Democratic nominee,George Mcgovern...



He lost by a landslide to Republican candidate, Richard 'Tricky Dick' Nixon.
If only he had won,pot would have been legalized!

..I guess we'll never know how things might have turned out.