Reflections from May 6, 1970 - READ 'EM AND WEEP

Peace Patriot got me thinking this afternoon about events of the '60s and '70s and how they relate to today. I have pulled out a letter I wrote to my parents on May 6, 1970 (I was 23), at the time of Kent State, which I'll quote here. It's sad how little things have changed....

"It's very hard for me to write or do much of anything right now after the tragedy at Kent State and the U.S. involvement in Cambodia and southeast Asia in general. As you know, we have all been involved in the movement for peace abroad and especially here at home, and I can't help but feel that it could've been any one of us as easily as those four students at Kent State. I deplore violence on campus, but then so did Allison Krause, and look where it got her. It is impossible to predict whether a rally will turn violent, but my God! do we have to fear for our lives each time we gather together to voice our dissent? They are trying to frighten us into submission.

Why shouldn't we protest against a war which everyone acknowledges is a big mistake, but in which our brothers have to die every day? You don't see Nixon or Agnew or Mendel Rivers over there fighting and dying. A few more lives may be expendable to them, but they certainly aren't expendable to the wives and families and friends of those who die. The war is ripping this nation apart. It is turning concerned young people into radical revolutionaries -- and more becoming radicalized with each instance of police or national guard repression. Cities lie in squalor because of lack of funds while billions of dollars are wasted on the war. I believe the scientists have the technology right now to stop air and water pollution and clean up the environment, but their hands are tied because our national priorities place war before survival. And in such a time of crisis, we come up with a madman for a president.

I really fear for the future of this nation, and it makes me so very, very sad becaues no one loves this country more than I do. And we must stand by and let our frustration build because all our peaceful protests have fallen on deaf ears and the violent protests only increase the repression. Innocent students die at the hands of the "national guard." I've always believed in evolution, in the "dawning of the age of Aquarius;" I've believed that once we were old enough to govern this country that perhaps we could correct some of the inequities and that this great nation could set a peaceful and benevolent example for the rest of the world. But I am increasingly fearful that we won't survive as a nation long enough to realize these dreams.

I don't want to die, but I would almost rather die than live under a Fascist government. "It can't happen here," they say, but recent developments have certainly shaken my faith. I don't believe I could ever take up a weapon against another human being. I don't believe I could even throw a rock through a window, but we are headed toward either a revolution or such massive repression that our democracy will no longer be recognizable as such. We are just so perplexed and shocked and practically at the end of our hopes.

It is a great blow when you've been taught all your life that America is the greatest, kindest, best country in the world and then you're confronted with all the realities that they never teach you about. And then Nixon says we're "bums" and the conservatives wail about anarchy and violence on campus, etc. etc. etc. without even stopping to think that the violence on campus is like a grain of sand compared to the violence being perpetrated by the government in the name of peace and freedom and "honoring our commitment."

Are they BLIND!? They pat themselves on the back and rave on about saving three astronauts from destruction in space. Are three astronauts more important than 50,000 dead American soldiers, half a million dead Vietnamese and countless more who risk their lives every day?"


How sad, how very sad, that we do not learn from our past.....

My dad was a life-long Roosevelt Democrat, so he couldn't have agreed with me more. My mom had been raised a Republican, but by this time she was pretty sick of the war, too ... so unlike a lot of kids my age, I had support from my parents for my political views (but not necessarily all the other "hippie" stuff I was up to at the time). :hippie: :smoke:

right?

I think America's spell of complacency is just about ending and we will soon see the worm turn.

at least it seemed like it at the time.

"I don't believe I could even throw a rock through a window, but we are headed toward either a revolution or such massive repression that our democracy will no longer be recognizable as such."

I think we're in the midst of the latter, repression and control via such unconventional means: systemic corporate slavery.

We may be at the end of an age

Someone I know shared this 'prophetic word' in church last Sunday

Most people will scoff

But for those who believe, it is sobering, and 'a time to align your priorities'

I mean, if I thought for a second that this country wouldn't change for the better in the next 35 years, I don't know if I could stand it. Aren't you disheartened?

...but I am so encouraged by the activism that I've seen here at DU and other sites and that finally some of this truth is coming out. I know people (including myself) complain about the corporate media, but we are so blessed to have the internet where all the alternative views can be brought to light and discussed and acted upon. I think every day more and more people are becoming enlightened, and I STILL believe, as I did back in the old days, that everything happens for a reason and that if enough people visualize world peace, it will come to pass. Humans are amazing creatures. We have an infinite capacity for cruelty, but we also have an infinite capacity for good. If we all put our minds to it we CAN change the world. In the immortal words of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young -- "It's dying to get better."