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Think it was around that time that Woody Allen was filming Take the Money in the city. I saw him down on Stockton near Broadway standing in the street with actors, film crew and all. He wasn't so well known then, and I don't think I hung around long. Always hated gawking at stars.
Personally I have always found the Aladdin's Lamp fairy tale so much more interesting as freebies from a Genii rather than temptations from the Devil. So if I wanted something to do it would be to prevent war, at least the big one. I had to be of course against the Vietnam war. So a first cast of villains was assigned, as those for the war. Those for were for mass murder and thus my enemies. However if one has power to affect penalties, one would have to engage in assigning degrees of guilt.
There was the radical revolutionary premise that all members of a society were equally guilty of the crimes of the state, in that they supported it passively. All Germans were equally guilty for the crimes of the Nazis. I never subscribed to this. For those who would engage in terrorist or aerial bombing of civilians, this logic must necessity be adopted. I talked to them, although I would have been surprised if it became anything more than talk. I knew that I was guilty of nothing, so that smashed their argument all to smithereens, unless I am guilty of merely being born to a specific country. I also thought about staying in Europe. But why should I impose myself on them? I decided to live in the country I was born.
We had a couple pilot trainees who would possibly graduate to bomb North Vietnam, stay for a weekend. They were attending the Air Force Academy in Colorado as son's of the likes of hamburger kings. Ford got roped into putting them up as good manners, by someone he knew. We neither of us were happy about it. Made us look bad. As it turned out they had not a clue. They were just kids pleasing their fathers. It was all kind of a game for them. They really didn't believe they would ever be flying the skies of North Vietnam. Their argument was it would not be them.
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