With all due respect, FS, are you old enough to remember the Jane Fonda "crap" and Ali and the draft? If your opinions weren't formed on the basis of first hand knowledge of the time and place, but rather on what you've heard or read...

Your post implies that we have "forgiven" Fonda and Ali. That may very well be the case, and I would suggest that perhaps the reason is that we have discovered that maybe they were right all along.

Sure, Jane consorted with officials from Hanoi, the "enemy". But they were only our enemy because our government told us they were. The North Vietnamese had no gripe with Americans until we invaded their country.

And Ali? Many people at the time, myself included, admired his courageous stance and willingness to throw away his career and possibly go to jail for a principle. Bear in mind that at the time he had just embraced the Muslim religion, and the climate in the U.S. was such that his religious convictions were somewhat unpopular.

I'm not suggesting that opinions formed by what you read and here about events before your time are invalid. After all, I wasn't around for Hitler (No, I'm afraid I'm not that old), and I have a pretty strong opinion about him.

All I'm saying is that at the time Fonda's and Ali's views were unpopular. But as time passes, and truths, moral or otherwise, come out, some people's opinions change. It has nothing to do with the American public having a "short memory".