0:16

Show. So

0:23

I just popped into my head to day as I was listening

0:25

to various conversations

0:27

over the last couple of weeks, comparing these

0:29

current times to which

0:31

I used to look at, read about history

0:34

books, watch documentaries about and think, man,

0:36

that must have been something to live through. Ugly

0:39

constant protests, violence,

0:43

police versus the people

0:45

in the street. You're either on their

0:47

side. There's no there's no staying out of it. You're

0:49

either on that side or that side. We're

0:52

clearly there now. Well

0:54

to discuss, to compare it to contrast,

0:57

and to just say hello, please, welcome back

0:59

to the Armstrong any show. Are esteemed a

1:01

newsman, Marshall Phillips,

1:03

Marshally, you were with us for a cup of coffee?

1:05

What was it fifteen years? It was

1:07

about fifteen years, Yeah, a little more than a

1:09

cup of coffee. By the way, guys, I have not left

1:12

my house since January one. I've

1:14

had to deal with things like raccoons in the chimney,

1:17

and you know, the the

1:19

neighbors complaints about my growing pyramid

1:21

of chardonnay bottles out in front, that

1:25

growing pyramid of chardonnay bottle. I

1:29

was actually thinking because I remember before you retired

1:31

from this program, discussion

1:33

of how much you're gonna follow the news or whatnot, and I

1:35

could see checking out completely. So it just

1:37

occurred to me. We could get you on the phone. You could say that what now

1:40

the protest about what there's a there's a disease.

1:44

You're not following news? No,

1:47

no, my friends, I h a. I have been following

1:49

the news, probably even too much. In

1:51

fact, you get to a point, especially when you're talking

1:54

talking about the pandemic and and

1:56

the action on the streets, and that well,

1:58

as far as the pandemic goes, I get a

2:00

cough, you know, and all of a sudden, I'm going,

2:03

oh my god, I've got the virus.

2:05

You know. Then you just got to calm yourself

2:07

down. Then I looked at what has been

2:09

going on in the streets, and I got to tell

2:12

you, in a lot of ways, this

2:14

is very similar to what was happening

2:16

in nineteen sixty eight, except it's

2:18

not being played out against

2:21

the background of a pandemic.

2:24

It is being fueled by a

2:26

lot of people who are just really

2:29

chicked off with what they see

2:31

as the current state of affairs. Back

2:34

in the sixties, it was the Vietnam War,

2:36

which a lot of people felt was

2:38

illegal, hadn't really been explained to them.

2:41

They had friends dying, and

2:44

now you've got another another ground

2:46

swell. It's actually, you know, spread worldwide,

2:49

fueled in large part by

2:52

young people who have just gotten out in the streets

2:54

and said we've had enough. Well was it? Was

2:56

it the same way in it's

2:59

the way it seems from eating about it. But I wasn't old

3:01

muff to know what was going on. Where you're either on one

3:03

side or the other. It was very, very difficult

3:05

to be neutral. Yes,

3:08

yeah, I mean you were. You really

3:10

were on one side or the other

3:12

there. It was hard to find a middle ground

3:14

at that point and again,

3:17

and the anger was fueled by both sides.

3:19

People who wanted peace and would condemn

3:21

the soldiers and people who

3:24

thought the war was righteous and would

3:26

condemn the people who wanted peace. There

3:29

were it was real hard to find a middle ground.

3:31

Do you remember people being uh

3:34

dragged out into the public square and their

3:37

careers being executed for being on

3:39

the wrong side of various arguments?

3:41

Back then? This, of course a lot of its social

3:43

media. Maybe without social media you couldn't do

3:45

that, do you remember anything about that. No,

3:48

not so much. No, not so much. I mean,

3:51

and again, as you pointed out, social media

3:53

has made a huge difference. I mean, you can be

3:56

told you can say the wrong thing

3:58

or try to say the right thing in an

4:00

awkward way and be crucified

4:02

for it. That that that

4:05

was that did not exist back then. Although

4:08

although fiery tempers

4:10

did produce fiery results both

4:12

in and today.

4:15

You know, it's probably worth pointing out the average

4:18

sandwich shop owner or or

4:20

you know, NBA announcer or whatever, they had no

4:23

way to communicate their opinion to

4:25

the masses, and

4:27

so you'd never hear about it anyone.

4:30

You didn't know what Frank and Gifford thought about the

4:32

Vietnam War necessarily right,

4:34

right, yeah, you know, and yeah

4:36

exactly, and again, uh,

4:39

even if people would say

4:42

certain inflammatory things, a lot of

4:44

the reporters wouldn't report it. They

4:46

would just say, all right, well that's

4:48

just background, and they wouldn't actually

4:50

put it in print. That

4:53

and again it's when I started

4:56

to work in radio. Oh god, no, so

4:58

many years ago. You would

5:00

call the president Mr President

5:03

or Mr Trump, you would

5:06

or Mr Nixon. You would never just say

5:08

Nixon or it was

5:10

always much more formal. And

5:13

again, how about you lying communist,

5:15

morbidly obese Nazi.

5:20

Well, you know, as time went on

5:22

that began to appear in the free press

5:25

and other alternate media.

5:27

Yes, yeah, what

5:29

so what? But so in between

5:32

sixty eight and recent times,

5:34

we obviously came back together, you

5:37

know, in a in a in a in a period of time

5:40

where we we were now thinking, oh,

5:42

those were the golden days. How do we get those back? What?

5:45

What ended the division?

5:47

Just the war ending or or did it

5:50

run its course? Or do you have any idea

5:52

you're talking about the end of the Vietnam War?

5:54

Well, what what brought us back together from the

5:56

sixties to a more a calmer period

5:59

through the seventies, eighties, nineties. I

6:01

think I think a lot of it was the fact that

6:03

the war ended, the draft ended,

6:06

and people started talking

6:08

to each other more. You know, you

6:11

had if you knew somebody that came back from

6:13

the war, you saw they

6:15

were in paid, so you

6:17

you know, you might you might be more

6:19

willing to talk to one another as

6:22

opposed to just getting on social media

6:24

and trying to dog somebody. Well, and a lot

6:26

of the race that go ahead and Marshall.

6:28

Sorry, I was just gonna say

6:30

I noticed that happening through the

6:33

years, especially as we got

6:35

to the end of the seventies into the eighties.

6:38

There was a lot more of all right,

6:40

I appreciate what you thought you had to do,

6:43

and I appreciate what you thought you had

6:45

to do, so you had more of

6:47

that back and forth. It's also

6:50

significant that the Nixon administration,

6:53

in the wake of the race riots of late sixties,

6:55

launched enormous social programs,

6:58

huge spending by the Republican administration

7:01

then, and a lot of people thought, Okay, that'll help, that'll

7:03

be good, and so, okay, we won't burn the cities

7:06

anymore. Um, and a lot of it actually didn't

7:08

help. It hurt, in my opinion, but um,

7:10

and then Watergate came and went, and then the war

7:12

ended. So yeah, just was

7:14

on TV and everything was you

7:17

know, we we intended when you retired

7:20

to check in with you now and then on retirement. Unfortunately

7:22

you retired right at the moment of a

7:25

global pandemic and a and a great

7:27

depression, so rough timing for

7:29

your retirement, I

7:31

realized, And you know, I will be

7:33

very honest with you. Part of me is sad,

7:37

and I'm not happy

7:39

that I retired at this period

7:41

of time. But part of me is also saying,

7:44

all right, you know, now it's a good time to step

7:46

back, at least for now. You know,

7:48

retirement doesn't mean forever, but at least

7:50

for now. And it's given me,

7:52

in all honesty, a really good

7:55

chance to observe

7:58

other people dealing with things in

8:00

their real life against this whole

8:02

background, against this panopally or what's

8:04

going on. Hey Marshall, I'm sorry we have

8:06

to jump in even as you're making a beautiful point.

8:09

We got about twenty seconds left, okay,

8:11

all right, Well, I we'll tell you this. I

8:13

am living in an undisclosed location five

8:16

months. It took five months, but my

8:19

house, my other house, is up for sale.

8:21

Excellent, excellent, And I assume you're

8:23

continuing the stockpile gold and weaponry.

8:25

Everybody. Marshall, Phillips are esteam News. Went

8:27

always great to talk. Thanks for your Marshall,

8:32

Armstrong and Getty