"What did we Accomplish in the Sixties?"

[1monster]

Yesterday, I read, and responded to a post in GDP where the OP suggested that everything wrong in the world was the fault of the Baby Boomers... you know, the "ME" generation who did nothing to better the world and thought only of themselves.

Today, just by chance, I came across this mini essay by author Katherine Kerr. I think it offers a good rebuttal to the young woman who made the post. It also serves as a reminder to all of that, despite television sitcoms to the contrary, the fifties were not a wonderful place, with liberty and justice for all and that the sixties, (the Boomers ME generation decade) brought about great, wonderful, and needed changes.

Of course, when the sixties were over, everything was not perfect and even without the neocons pulling us backwards, we still would have a long way to go, but we can be proud of what was accomplished. And we can use it as proof that WE can change things for the better.

http://www.deverry.com/thesixties.html

Why do you think nothing concrete and lasting happened out of the 60s? Lots of people have been saying this lately, and I can't help feeling that the changes were so profound and total that no one remembers that there were changes! The 50s, my friends, happened in a different country than this one. We did not get everything we wanted, no. The world is not perfect now, and is that why some of us think we accomplished nothing?

Consider: in the 60s, the Civil Rights movement brought about the end of segregation and a raft of anti-discrimination laws, culminating in the Johnson administration's Civil Rights Act, one of the most far-reaching pieces of law ever enacted. Local governments also produced laws against discrimination in housing, jobs, schooling. Even leisure activities -- I remember a time when non-whites couldn't enter most restaurants, go to Disneyland, or use the same beaches as whites. Mixed race couples were harassed everywhere they went unless they lived in Hawai'i. I could go on, but you get the picture.

Then there's the Women's Movement, which had its roots in the 60s though it flowered in the early 70s. Equal pay for equal work -- I remember when "Help Wanted" ads came in two columns, male and female. The female jobs always paid less: waitresses less than waiters, secretaries less than administrative assistants, on and on. Women had no control over their own bodies -- contraception depended on a man's willingness to use a condom, and most weren't willing. No legal abortion. Doctors who paid little attention to female complaints but lots to male illnesses. Natural childbirth wasn't an option, and women were kept from breastfeeding even if they wanted to. And so on. (snip)

More importantly, we have the question of arguing with authority, with daring to question authority, whether that authority was a doctor, a cop, or a president. The Bushies are finding out to their horror that a great many people now see dissent as the American Way. That wasn't the case in the 50s, not on your life. It's a direct result of the huge numbers of people who turned out to protest in the 60s. At first the media tried to slight the rallies and the marches, but by the end TV news showed streets filled with people from all walks of life, marching to end the war or to give people of color access to all of American life, not just the servant classes.(snip)

More at the link above.