Fifty Years Out – Out from “I have a dream…”. I feel sorry for anyone born after the mid-50’s. Those of you born during the current soft times. To you “duck and cover” is only a really silly ad campaign involving a turtle. (Watch it.) You might not even know who or what the Freedom Riders were. In this era of “Stand Your Ground” – who can imagine bus loads of college students riding Trailways busses in coat and tie or hose and hats. Taking bus rides that almost always ended in a serious beating and/or jail time. All this done while never hitting back. Do you remember what it was like when middle and upper class “girls” went to college for their Mrs. Degree? When lower class girls like me could go to beauty college or secretarial college. If we were very bright – we maybe might could go to teachers college. College college wasn’t an option. When, if you were a guy, unless you were in college or were very lucky in the draft lottery – there was a very good chance you were going to die far from home in a very unpopular war. No one was going to say “Thank you for your service” either.
Those of us who came up through the Civil Rights/Women’s Rights/AntiWar era were hugely blessed. We had great sweeping causes. Causes worth dying for. And, at the end the struggles – most of us got jobs with health insurance. And a house in the ‘burbs with two cats in the yard. Oh yes, and we had The Dead.
Are we really going to go quietly to the grave without just one more righteous cause? Sure hope not.
awe who’s that cute kid…oh wait ;P