Hi Terry I’ll freely admit to being a cynic, so while I agreed with his points that we will move past this, what I’ve witnessed has been no reflection of that. My father is from Vietnam so Hastings’ book was an eye opening experience for me because my father doesn’t really talk about it, my mother is from Taiwan and lived through the years of martial law under the KMT. Seeing how Taiwan has emerged from those years gives me hope that democratic ideals will persevere, but conversely I have the perspective that when Saigon fell my family lost everything and so my father carries a lot of resentment towards communism and the threat that mainland China poses for the ideals of democracy in Taiwan and at present Hong Kong so my perspective is shaped by this. This actually ends up being a nice segue to the next book on my reading list:
71) The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights and Other Appreciations by John McCain I’m very cynical when it comes to politicians and I adopt the view that they are all as bad as each other so when I decided to read this I was expecting a book that would be entirely self serving. I’m glad though that I was proven wrong. I may not agree with McCain on certain issues especially since I most definitely don’t have conservative views, but I can respect his service to his country and his dedication to protecting the freedoms of people everywhere. This is a man who was able developed lasting friendships with people on both sides of politics despite their disagreements on many issues something that the current crop of politicians today would do well to remember.
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched they must be felt with the heart
