I just received another one of those remember the 1950's nostalgia e-mails from one of my older friends.It harkens us back to a time when as they put it "We never heard of Aids, Red M&M's, Compact Disc, Computers, Push Button Telephones, Answering Machines, ID Box's, Cable TV, VCR's, Remote Control, The Beatles, Hippies, Riots in the Street, Vietnam, Shopping Malls, Drive By Shotings, Disco, Heavy Metal, and Bill Gates. Our TV's only had 3 channels.Ah, a time of Rock 'N' Roll, DA Haircuts, Penny Loafers, Cigarettes rolled up in the boys tee shirt sleeves, Pegged Pants, The Jitter Bug, TV Dinners, Telephone Party Lines, "
That is not the 1950's I remember.I was born in 1953 and while all those things they long for are true they are only true if you were a white male or a pretty white female of good breeding.
I do not remember the things they long for but what I do remember of the 50's I sure don't long for at all.It is that America and it's citizens long for the spirit of the 1960's.They were ugly but they were much truer to the founding fathers ambitons for our nation than perhaps any other generation.The right wing longs for the 1950's .Of course they do.That was the last decade they went unchallenged and their way of life and social structure was the accepted norm for America.
If you wanted a college education or heaven forbid were a female that did not want to be a teacher,nurse or maybe a bookeeper you were not in keeping with the mold.Children were spanked at home and in schools and wifes were struck by their husbands because he thought she needed a "good slap in the chops." This was not against the law because did not want to "involved in another guy's marriage" and "if we spared the rod we spolied the child."One of the weirdest things were the nuclear attack drills we had in public schools.In case of nuclear attack we all filed in an orderly fashion to the basement of the schools and had to hide under a desk.Even as a precosious 10 year old I knew this was stupid and was sent to the principal's office for sayng exactly that.
One drink for the road was normal for a guy in a bar. Men deserved to lay at home and watch a ball game while their wives served them because they worked all week.The government lied without consequence and we haven't even touched upon the segregation that was legal at the time.
The truth was compromised for the greater good of the people by those who thought they knew best for the nation.
I could go on and on but that is not what this is about.The sixties came and the white man's world started to crumble here in America.No group ever desrved a jolt more than they did and they have been angry ever since.This was the start of the right wing we see today.
These are the older white males like my own father who still can not quite understand what happened to them or why they no longer have complete control of the United States of America.They still have the inside track on many of our most powerful power bases but this too shall pass and for this person not a minute too soon.Now don't get me wrong I do not hate white men I am married to one but he is my age and grew up as I did questioning and fighting the older male minset our father's had.
I came of age in the 1960's and quite frankly I am proud of the fights we fought and even prouder of why we fought them.Secretly I still say trust no one over thirty but now I have simply added the 30 years and say trust no one over 60.In the ultimate flashback I was verbally confronted by a group of 5 older white males at an Anti -Iraq War demonstration on the elipse for telling them to leave some college students who displaying a very graphic Abu Grav protest poster just below the Washington Monument.After a rather loud disagreement about rights to assemble I told them to leave the kids alone I sat against a chicken wire fence next to a tired women my age right under a capital police officer in riot gear and sighed "this is our fault" she looked at me with a weary look on her face and asked "why?' "Because we knew better and did not scream loud enough" I repiled.She agreed .We exchanged where we were from .Chicago she said .Connecticut I replied.We stood up after sharing a smoke and went right back to our protestig by the studenst soo we could protect them from the men I had confronted on theri behalf.I think they were secretly relieved to have a couple of Mom's there with them.I know we always were when we protested.
She asked if I was there for the Viet Nam protests and I shared with her I was .She was too.We wondered aloud why this happened again and prayed together our children never would have to come twice to prtest a war of lies as we had.
When I deleted that "Remember the 1950's " e-mail this morning all the rage of my youth bubbled up again and overwhelmed me with frustration.The same damn frustration that I have felt my entire adult life.
Until we are honest about the 1960's and how huge the unresloved issues of the 1960's still are in our American society we will not take that turn and spiral upward to the heights this nation is capable of eliminating.
The right wing cloings to the 1950's while we still fight the fights of the 60's and I say it is high time we loook at them and say absolutely no we will never go back to the supposedly innocent times of the 50's.
I have tried to capture the statistics of the 3 major issues of the 1960's here by researching the" then and now "facts.The 3 major issues are Viet Nam War and the dissent that it gave way to in our nation.For the first time in our history the nongovernmental citizens of this nation openly as a large group challenged the government successfully with facts.It started with the youth but it did give notice by the sheer numbers of new 18-21 year old voters by the politicians.The eventual withdrawal without a so-called victory and the controversy that still boils under the surface of the right wing is a part of the reason why they so blindly cheered the Iraq War .Many of us were against before the start but we were drowned out by the eager beavers who were still smarting from the so called humiliation of the Viet Nam War.I searched and found a good synopsis of the Viet Nam War I remember here.
http://us.history.wisc.edu/...
http://us.history.wisc.edu/...
This is one of the most thorough summations I have read presented in a way that I remember complete with the heartbreak of being a liberal and watching the end of the moderate support from leaders I could agree with most of the time.Of course of the assaninations of King and RFK had not happened who knows what would have happened but sadly they did die and many of the wars we still fight are a result of the right wing deception perpetrated by Nixon who gave inside political ower to men like Cheney,Buchanan,and many other political insider who we still have to contend with today.
Next we go to the next issue which is of course civil rights.Civil rights was both the salvation and the ruin of the liberal democratic party.The dixiecrats fled to become the southern republican power base we still see today.If any group hates the 1960's the most in the right wing today my guess is these are the ones.The government imposed newly written federal laws on them with military force never seen since the Civil War.Prior to that the only liberal idea they had to contend with was Truman integrating the military but that did not hit their homes and their schools.The most expensive college ever paid for by the US government to any citizen was James Meredith.
http://www.answers.com/...
It is estimated the education of Mr Meredith cost the US governemt over 3 million dollars due to the costs of security he needed at Ole Miss.Perhaps this was one of the wisest 3 million we ever spent but their are still many who would dispute that."Oh for the good old 1950's whe these things never happened."The good old days?
I have found a very useful timeline with an overall good timeline that denotes the 1960's as the pivotal turning point .
http://www.infoplease.com/...
Thousand of articles exist but his particular timeline shows the turning point politically in 1988 where congress overturned Reagan's presidential veto.
"Overriding President Reagan's veto, Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which expands the reach of non-discrimination laws within private institutions receiving federal funds ."This was the final crack that cemented the division in the right wing versus the left and the moderates in both parties .This also paved the way for the rise of K Street and the republican stranglehold for almost 40 years as the defenders of private business.Only when the heavily trickled down upon American middle class felt the results of these policies did we see change.Reagan'swar on the poor and middle class hit the racial minorities the hardest and the longest.The rest of this history is yet to be written.Unless we visit the 1960's again I don't think we will see the road to effectively eliminate the long term damage his policies have had on the generation that followed his policies..We also need to remember why the right wing hates the 60's and this is one more component that formed that political power base of that segment in American politics.
The final movement that followed very rapidly was the women's movement.Until the 1960's women were forced to follow 19th century white male rules in every aspect of their lives.Wardrobe,social standing ,child bearing ,work opportunities and educational avenues were almost totally predetermined for women until the 60's.As recently as last year we saw the SCOTUS rule in a manner that was offensive and in my opinion ignorant white male old school arrogance in the Lilly Ledbetter ruling addressing equal pay for equal work.Congres has addressed this with a much heralded law that I consider "weak but better than what we had".This phrase pretty much encapsulates the womens movement in America and the progress it has made.Once again I have included a useful timeline for women's rights.
http://www.infoplease.com/...
Every time the right wing spits the words "affirmative action " out as if they were two of the most vial cuss words in the English language I cringe for both American minorites and women.Affirmative action was the turning point for woman in their search for employment in the working sector.This is once again one of the reasons why the right wing hates the 1960's.
In closing I would hope that those of you under the age of 30 would really read this timeine and see what many of the right wing talking points mean and where they came from.They are based on a dishonest assessment of the laws that they look upon with such disdain and why these laws had to be enacted
As for the so called innocence of the 1950's it was as innocent as a dirty uncle that improperly leers at or touches his niece or nephew .The family decides not to tell because they don't want that public shame in their house so they tell the child to avoid the nasty realtive rather than out him to the police.In my family it was Great Aunt Cecile's hubby Uncle Melvin."Don't go near Uncle Melvin alone " I was told as a youngster."Why ?!? Because I said so that's why!" Okay Mom I won't.
Mom I loved you dearly but you were wrong because out of "respect for Aunt Cecile " you let a pervert live a good life.But that was the innocent 1950's........