‘Welcome children. Welcome to another episode of Reverend Al cooking up cost saving recipes for the poor folk out there. You are not alone. More and more of us are having a hard time feeding ourselves and our families. Now today were going to have a cheap meal that’s packed with protein, fiber and some carbohydrates. A little bit of everything you need to keep going’.

‘Beans on toast!’ Reverend Al proclaimed with a big smile. ‘One of my favorite meals. Oh, when those beans soak into the toast. Um, um, um, now that’s good eating. And a can of beans cost less than a dollar at the discount store. Oh my, I can’t wait till those beans are ready.

‘Now children,’ Reverend Al continued. ‘As always I have little Johnny from across the hall performing the cameraman duties with his cellphone. Johnny makes the show good and exciting by following me around the kitchen while I’m chopping things up here, or cooking something else over there. He’ll be right beside me, so you can see the sparks fly off my knife when I’m going at it. Then when the food’s cooking, he’ll be right in there with the camera, showing you what it’s supposed to look like’.

‘Now isn’t that exciting? Today we’re going to start by opening a can of beans, and putting them on a pot and then setting the pot on the stove at medium heat. That’s right, it’s that easy. Then you just wait for them to start to bubble. So let’s get started, cause I have to tell you, once you have beans on your mind, you got to have them.

‘Now Johnny, maybe you’d like to get those beans in the pot, while old Reverend Al sits down and tells a story.

‘I’m the cameraman,’ Johnny claimed, slightly offended that Reverend Al should think he should demoted to helper.

‘So?’

‘So, You’re the cook and I’m the cameraman. You do the cooking.’

‘Well, that may be so in most cases, but my rheumatics are acting up today, It’s my condition that’s keeping me from pouring those beans myself’.

‘Mom says your only condition is laziness,’ Johnny replied.

‘Well now, it’s a lot better than the condition you’re afflicted with, which is sassiness. Now get over there and get those beans on the stove. Leave the camera here, and I’ll start my story.’

Johnny relented with a huff.

‘Now children, today, I want to tell you about a war old Reverend Al lived through back in the day. It was a terrible war. Millions of people died, some of whom were our own. Young men and women were sent off to a bloody uncertainty, not knowing if they were coming home or not. 10’s of thousands of our youth didn’t come home. In some cases they were forced to forfeit their lives. They gave up everything. An entire life experience.

‘Now the war I want to talk about is the Vietnam war, but before we get too far into this, Johnny run over with the camera and show the folks what those beans look like sitting there on the stove’.

Johnny looked at Reverend Al in disbelief, ‘I’m pretty sure they know what a pot beans looks like’.

‘Now go on and show them. This is cooking show, and quit being so contrary while you’re at it. You’re starting to interrupt the gentility of my show with your general contrariness. Get over there and show these nice people those beans, or I’ll be having a talk with your mother.’

With another huff, Johnny reluctantly got up. Reverend Al disappeared from view, and the audience watched the floor while Johnny made his way to the kitchen.

‘You suck Reverend Al,’ Johnny said, as he held his cellphone over the pot of beans. Then he gave the beans the finger, so the audience could see.

‘Why you,’ Reverend Al proclaimed. The boy had almost provoked him to get out of his chair. That’s how mad he was getting. ‘I wish I had a switch. I’d show you some manners. You know, if I had half a mind, I wouldn’t pay you for this episode’.

Stolen story; please report.

‘You don’t pay me! Mom makes me do out of charity’.

‘Well, I was thinking about it. I was thinking about paying you, but now I changed my mind. How do you like that? Now get back here. They’ve seen the beans long enough. Everyone knows what beans look like’.

‘Alright children. The Vietnam war was a special war, because a war was being fought at home as well as overseas. The war in Vietnam brought attention to our ideals as a nation, and as individuals we were forced to question if those ideals were our own. We fought a war over our beliefs and a new set of beliefs were the result of it. It was a turning point in Western consciousness and it changed what we believed democracy should be. Back then, was a time of conflict and chaos. It was a time not unlike today.

‘It all started with the Civil Rights movement. Just like today, black people were not being treated with the same rights as the rest of the population. Only then it was more generally institutionalized.

Well the black people were sick of it, and they organized and protested. Mostly peaceful, even respectful of the laws they wished to live under. The strategy worked. All the brutality came from one side. It was easy to recognize who the thugs were. Though it was brutal, the Blacks continued to march, and people began to take notice, and they started asking themselves, ‘Why are we allowing our black brothers and sisters to be treated this way? Organized and peaceful protests, gained the Black struggle public recognition and support.’

‘Johnny, go give those beans a stir. I hear them bubbling. Leave the camera equipment. I’ll operate it’.

Johnny did it without further fight. All the old man was good for was arguing.

‘Now then, around the same time the civil rights movement was really growing,’ Reverend Al’s ear said, ‘a lot of our sons and daughters were getting sent over to Vietnam. An awful lot of them weren’t coming home. If someone hadn’t experienced loss in their own family, they knew someone close to them who had. Enough weren’t coming back that people started to take a closer look at what was going on, and they saw children who didn’t want to go to war, go to war. The people at home were forced to ask themselves, ‘Why are we allowing these people to be treated this way?’

‘At the same time people became aware of who the enemy was in Vietnam, and the way the war was being fought. Civilians were unfairly being killed. Two thirds of the over 3 million Vietnamese killed were civilian.

‘Once again, the people saw the injustice, and had to question the values of our representatives of democracy. Once again, their actions didn’t measure up to what we the people believed democracy should be.

‘As a country and democracy, the majority of us believed our government was not living up to our expectations and we had a mind to change it. But what to do? How do I change something that is beyond my control, each and everyone of them asked?

‘The answer was in the civil rights movement. It was in motion, gaining awareness, traction and the promise of positive change. It was all due to organized protest. People took their dissatisfaction to the streets, and the counter culture evolved. The prevailing beliefs and values of the people, became counter to the status quo, and the people set to change the status quo.

‘So children, the people learned a very important lesson about democracy during the Vietnam war. By the example of the civil rights movement, and a fella by the name of Gandhi before that, people came to know that when it comes down to it, the will of the public dictates all else.

‘Of course that was long ago, and we’ve forgotten that now, so we find ourselves in the same place today, as we were back then. We have all these problems, and we’re sitting at home eating beans, and wondering what to do about it. We can’t figure out what we can do about it.

‘The truth is, we do know how to set things right. The example and truth has been set. Organize our beliefs and act on them. We’re all connected, right there on the internet. All we have to do is start talking, and defining our concerns, beliefs and aspirations. Momentum will grow out of that. It’s your time to start forming connections with others who share in your problems.

‘Now let me tell you something Children. We have this thing called open source AI. It’s everywhere. It’s right on your phone, and it will direct you to where you want to go. It will even assist you if your motives are pure. It’s the people’s AI. Learn how to use it. It’s working for you.

‘We are the children of God!’ Reverend Al proclaimed, having worked himself up into pontificating. ‘It is us who are blessed. It is us who will take dominion over the lands lands and march to God’s glory. When we begin to march together, we will return to Eden; the garden of eternal bounty for all. Oh Glory to God. Our march begins now children. Let us end the suffering of knowing what’s about to come.

‘Can I get an amen?

‘Alright. Old Reverend Al is feeling better now. Johnny, why don’t you run over to your Mom’s and get some bread. I’ll show our friends here how to make toast and then demonstrate me eating and enjoying these beans here. Bring some butter too, if you have any. Oh my, I can’t wait to get at these beans.’