What is it about summer in America that loves toforget?

Is it the warm weather? The vacations away? Or maybeit’s the barbecues and beer. Whatever the reason,summer in America is the season of amnesia: a defaultdesire to forget war and third world hunger, to forgetover-consumption and impending ecological disaster.

Summer in America is a time to swim in the warmnostalgia of summer break from school. A time to bearannual witness to the rockets’ red glare of the Fourth ofJuly fireworks, and a time to admire the wavingmajesty of the stars and stripes forever while theboys of summer play baseball at Fenway Park.

In America, during the season of amnesia, all is good.

Remember the summer of ’67? Now that was a summer: theSummer of Love — the season of Janis Joplin and JimiHendrix, of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper and the Doors’Light My Fire. It was the summer of Timothy Learypromoting psychedelic acid trips, and of free love andfinding yourself.

In the summer of ’67 we travelledwith the searching spirit of Dustin Hoffman in TheGraduate, and travelled with the free spirits of FayeDunaway and Warren Beatty in Bonnie and Clyde. Andsouth of Boston, we placed our hopes in the swingingbat of Carl Yastrzemski and the Red Sox — all the wayto the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Of course, it was also the season of amnesia. In 1967,America fought a far away war in Southeast Asia. Inthat year alone — by July of 1967 — 2,566 Americansoldiers had been killed in the jungles of Vietnam.How many Vietnamese died, killed by American bombs andbullets? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Who knows? Itwas the season of amnesia, after all.

And yet, strangely, it was during the season ofamnesia when — for the first time during the war — abare majority of Americans thought the Vietnam War wasa mistake. Imagine that. And when the season ofamnesia finally gave way to the cool weather of fallthat year, the political tide in America turnedagainst the Vietnam War — and against its chief agent, President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Now, it’s the season of amnesia again — 2005.

But the Summer of Love this ain’t. In 2005, America’sdrug of choice isn’t acid — it’s fear. But what a tripfear is. Dig the psychedelic colours of our fear:Code Orange, Yellow, and Red — and even alerts inAmber. It’s also the summer of Tom Cruise dissingPaxil and the psychiatric “lies” of bad body chemistry(but, man, just don’t ask him about those lies onOprah’s couch.)

This summer, we fear angry terroristsfrom other planets in Tom Cruise’s War of the Worlds,and also witness our retaliatory ability on Internetreal time: America’s Fourth of July fireworks on anasteroid a million miles away. What a summer trip,man.

Of course, this is still the season of amnesia.Already this year, in 2005, 405 American soldiers havebeen killed on the sands of Iraq, and another 54Americans have been killed in the mountains and plainsof Afghanistan. How many Iraqis and Afghans have died,killed by American bombs and bullets? Thousands?Tens of thousands? Who knows? It’s still the season ofamnesia, after all.

But dig this: for the first time — during this war — abare majority of Americans think the Iraq War is amistake. Imagine that. And when the season of amnesiafinally gives way to the cool weather of fall thisyear, will the political tide in America turn againstthis war — and against its chief agent, PresidentGeorge W. Bush?

Well, if summer in America is the Season of Amnesia,then maybe fall is the Season of Reason.

Let’s hope so.