Posted on 03/07/2019 9:42:07 AM PST by Kaslin
Fifty years ago, the United States was facing crises and unrest on multiple fronts. Some predicted that internal chaos and revolution would unravel the nation.
The 1969 Vietnam War protests on the UC Berkeley campus turned so violent that National Guard helicopters indiscriminately sprayed tear gas on student demonstrators. Later that year, hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets of major cities as part of the "Moratorium to the End the War in Vietnam." In Washington, D.C., about a half-million protesters marched to the White House.
Native American demonstrators took over the former federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay and stayed there for 19 months, declaring it their own sovereign space.
In November 1969, the American public was exposed to grotesque photos of the My Lai Massacre, which had occurred the year before. The nation was stunned that American troops in Vietnam had shot innocent women and children. My Lai heated up the already hot national debate over whether the Vietnam War was either moral or winnable.
Meanwhile, the trial of the so-called Chicago Seven, involving the supposed organizers of the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, roiled the nation. The courtroom drama involving radical defendants such as Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin descended into a national circus, as the battle between leftists and the establishment went from the streets to the courtroom.
It was also the year of the Woodstock music festival. More than 400,000 thrill-seekers showed up on a small farm in the Catskill Mountains in August 1969 to celebrate three days of "peace and music." Footage of free love and free drugs at Woodstock shocked half the country but resonated with the other half, which viewed the festival as much-needed liberation for an uptight nation.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
In 1969 the vast majority of Americans were firmly opposed to Leftist nutbattery.
Today the split is around 50-50.
I was in my early age 20s during the crazy years 1968 to 1972. I saw what was going on but stayed away from the sex and drugs as my upbringing had warned me against the dangers as to such excesses. I did love the rock and roll music and still listen to oldies radio. I saw the college protests at UW-Madison but didn’t join them as I was raised a patriot by my WWII Marine father. I used college to dodge the draft, not because I was anti-war, but because I didn’t want my pink butt shot off. I do respect all those who served, then and now.
The election is going to be very interesting.
I agree. Times have changed dramatically, and although I would like to believe in this concept of a resilient America, seeing the rot in the middle of our government and in entities such as the FBI and DOJ make it hard to be optimistic.
There will always be Conservatives... Otherwise-Who’s going to pay the bills?
I was raised a patriot [who] used college to dodge the draft.
I have lived through then and now, now is just a continuation down the slippery slope.
They took God out of the public schools, legalized abortion, and started bringing in people from non-Christian cultures.
Here we are.
Venezuela argues otherwise.
50 years more of public schools indoctrinating kids.... and parents happily sending them off to their little education camps daily...
And it has. And the blame lies with Christian pastors who thought being nice and "love" would make a pretty facade to cover their cowardice.
seeing the rot in the middle of our government and in entities such as the FBI and DOJ make it hard to be optimistic.
**************
The rot and corruption is not confined to government bureaucracies. It also extends to a highly partisan and dishonest media, our politicized educational indoctrination system, a corrupt two tiered legal system, and a dysfunctional government completely devoid of integrity.
The rate and breadth of our national decline is alarming.
Maybe you’ll like my story better. I was 1 of 3 kids raised by a poor single mother. Started working at 10. When 1970 hit I was 13 and indulged in everything (all the while still working at earning money). When 1976 hit and I didn’t want to be poor anymore I joined the USAF. Have never been poor since:-)
Turning the other cheek means you don’t see the boot accelerating toward your butt. At some point kindness becomes weakness.
Much better.
Yes, I agree entirely.
Agreed.. I think that silent America exists in small numbers. Everyone who used to be conservative that i know changed their votes once they received their medicare card.
“Everyone who used to be conservative that i know changed their votes once they received their medicare card.”
I understand people being careful in order to take care of family and loved ones. I don’t, however, understand the whole concept of self-preservation at any cost. I absolutely believe that it is better to live one day as a lion than a 1000 as a lamb (metaphorically).
If my life has no purpose or meaning other than self-preservation, what does it matter? To exist? For what? I want my life to mean something beyond existence alone. Yes, I know there’s a God, my faith is extremely and centrally important to me, and I know that there is a reason for us being here. That said, life is an opportunity, and if we don’t do something with that opportunity other than self-preservation and clinging to creature comforts, we’ve wasted it.
I read about an old preacher who told his family “you have four cheeks to turn and when you turn the last one, it’s time to kick ass.”
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