40 years ago

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

Words from Paul Simon's "The Obvious Child" inspired this post:

Sonny's yearbook from high school
Is down from the shelf
And he idly thumbs through the pages

Some have died
Some have fled from themselves
Or struggled from here to get there....

Anyone else from the Class of 1968?

I see echoes of those troubled times now. Chaos in the Democratic Party, a rising young star giving us hope, the pragmatic older generation watching things cautiously. No assassinations or attempts now, and I hope they do not come, for I vividly recall what happens when hopes are dashed.

Oddly enough, at age 57 I am much more at peace within myself than I was at 17, though the first glimpse of reality was given to me back then. And I find refuge in that peace which is, indeed, beyond all human understanding. May 2008 be a turning point for good.

What are your thoughts, Class of '68?

[Taverner]

1. MOMMY!

:hug:

In all seriousness, as a Gen-Xer, I think of the boomers as kind of our generational parent - you guys were the ones who taught us critical thinking. You were our teachers, our professors, our musicians.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. You know, I chose not to have children

but rather to adopt those who wished to be adopted and to help them along. You honor me by calling me Mommy.

[Taverner]

10. Awesome - were/are you a schoolteacher?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

11. for 20 odd years

quit when NCLB came in, as I wasn't allowed to teach.

[cosmik debris]

2. I see history repeating itself.

The cycles seem to get shorter as I get older.

[niyad]

3. checking in

I remember all too clearly what that year was like--especially that awful day in june, when it became clear that our world had taken a very wrong turn.

but, a good many of us have never stopped fighting for the world we believe in, and will continue to do so, until our last breaths.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. two days before my graduation

my whole class was devastated. We were all in shock, and went through the ceremony rather mechanically.

[madokie]

4. it was pretty much the same as in '66

an old bastard ain't I :evilgrin:

[havocmom]

5. '68 has been on my mind a lot lately too. Man, I hope it doesn't get that nasty

but I fear it will actually be worse.

In '68, there were jobs and young people had reason for hope for their future. Now?

Been saying, for the past 30 years, that the upper class is turning America into a Third World Nation now. I feel like Cassandra.

'68 was bad enough, but one hell of an education. Now? Oh, the nation is in so much more trouble. The ruling class back then made mistakes this generation of rulers have learned from. And in the intervening 40 years, there has been a serious dumbing-down of the population, so conditions got REALLY bad before most noticed.

An epic battle ahead. Some of us old war-horses are very tired now, but then, that gives us more freedom if we look at it from a certain view. All our worst fears about the establishment have been proved correct. We were right. We were righteous. Now we are older and way over putting up with excuses.

Freedom comes along with that perspective and peace. I understand fully what you say.
We are free to make choices. We have reason to trust our own judgment. We were right way back then and we know the enemy.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. You are so right

Read "Who Rules America?" in my senior economics class. For those who don't know, that book talked of the undo influence of drug and insurance companies on government policies. That has only gotten worse. One reason I've dropped out of traditional health care.

Now is time for us to gather in our communities again, like it was back then. Find and know your friends and tell them what you can contribute to the whole community. Get ready for survival mode.

[havocmom]

12. "teach your children well"

And teach them to grow some food.

[KoKo]

8. There's great discontent....and another endless war...candidates who

don't seem to be able to commit to ending the violence or investigating what went wrong. An Economy that's beginning to have grave problems due to all the war costs.

There are similarities. They you throw in the Bush Crime Family and anything could happen.

[slackmaster]

13. I turned 10 in 1968, and it was a very enlightening year for me

I had started in the 6th Grade at a very good school in San Diego. In December my stepfather of one year got assigned by his employer (an aerospace company) to relocate to Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, NM for a high-priority missile develoment project.

So I got ripped out of a comfortable situation and put into a very uncomfortable one at a school in Alamogordo. Accustomed to being surrounded by mostly highly intelligent children of doctors and college professors, I found myself immersed with working class kids and people who lived on ranches. The math and reading were a full year behind the school I came from.

I was pretty miserable in New Mexico, but there were a couple of bright spots:

My home room teacher was very good at teaching English. She sucked at math and science, so the other 6th grade teacher, who sucked at English, traded off with her every day. I did learn the parts of speech, how to formally parse sentences, etc.

We moved back to San Diego the following summer. The last day of our journey was very memorable: July 20, 1969, the day of the Apollo 11 moon landing (and as we learned later, the Chappaquiddick incident was underway). It was raining hard in Imperial County, CA because of the remnants of a tropical storm. The AM radio was playing mostly static. I'll never forget the moment the cloudburst paused, we saw blue sky, and heard the scratchy sound of Neil Armstrong saying "Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed."

1968 was the year I became aware of plate tectonics and evolution. I was always a major science geek, but rose to a new level of passion about it that year. Nothing infuriates and frustrates me more than the rise of the neo-Puritan Christian fundamentalists who are trying to push their ridiculous creation myth as an "alternative theory" to evolution.

How far we have fallen since 1968, in spite of all we have learned.

[sinkingfeeling]

14. I'm the Class of 1966. But Bobby was my candidate.

[SteveG]

15. Pretty much the same

I pretty much agree with all you say here. Maybe the bad cycle that began in 68 will end in 08.


Another member of the class of '68