puszysty

Oo, I'd forgotten about that story. I love this one though, good choice.

Felix boards the bus to the same stares he gets all the time now. As the bus begins to pull out, a man sits next to him and introduces himself as Tom. Tom’s got on a jean jacket covered in peace signs and doves, but Felix can tell he’s also got a side-arm hidden under the jacket. It’s an interesting statement.
Hippie!Tom. Totally how I would imagine Zarek during the 70's. Felix sees the irony in Tom's get up, but Tom doesn't at all here. From all the movies/tv I've seen about that movement, there were a number of people like Tom, peace at all cost kinda people.

“You’re one of the ones who got sent over there, huh?” Tom says. “Unfair, what they do to you boys. Stealing away the youth of America without ever giving them a chance.” Felix had never thought of it that way before, the military doing this to him. He’d always thought he’d done it to himself. Felix doesn’t tell Tom he wasn’t drafted.
Tom has a gun. Felix wisely keeps his mouth shut, lest it look like he supports the war.

“We gotta put it right, you know? Give the people a voice. Stop forcing people into war, let them decide for themselves. That’s what America’s supposed to be about. That’s what democracy really means. Nixon’s forgotten that!”
Ah yes, Tom and his democracy speeches. Someone asked me in their feedback if Nixon = Roslin, and no, it doesn't entirely. I see Roslin as more of a Johnson/Nixon cross than one or the other. Nixon just happened to be president during the time this story is set. Anyone else, Tom would still be ranting.

Felix simply nods and says, “The world is upside down.”

“The world is upside down, man, I’m gonna have to use that. Yes it is, man, yes it is.” Tom smiles and nods his head a few times. Felix can see the wheels turning. The world really is upside down, though probably not in the same way for both them.
That's really just a nod to canon there, and their scene in the brig.

Felix thinks about sleeping, but the memories of Sam smiling, strumming his imaginary guitar and Louisa’s pleading tears prevent him from getting any rest. He decides to talk to Tom. Felix doesn’t care about the man, probably never will, but he’s there, and he’s not staring. “Where you headed?”

“Ohio,” replies Tom. “Word of a big protest stirring up there, and I’m going to be a part of it. Doing what I can to be heard.”
Kent State. I don't think it drew in a lot of outside protestors other than people mingling around the college, but it was the only protest where people died, hence, Ohio.

“You think it’s making any difference?” Felix asks. From where he sits, he doesn’t think so. But he wonders what the man next to him thinks, if it’s still possible to believe in your country when you haven’t been over there.
Just like New Caprica/raptor of doom really frakked up Felix, Vietnam did quite a number on Felix. Which is kinda where this story begins, with the destruction of his belief that he was ever doing the right thing in the first place. Here, Felix wonders if it's still possible to believe in authority if he hadn't been to Nam (in essence, wonders if it would have been possible for him to be on the other side of the mutiny.)