That awful day in 1968.

[Hekate]

44. My friends & I worked so hard that year, ages 20-21. It was my big intro to politics...

A friend who was going to Long Beach State College came back to and told us about Senator Eugene McCarthy being the first to run on an antiwar platform, and away we went.

Another friend who had some kind of connection to Bobby Kennedy (I never figured out what) went to work on his campaign; but McCarthy got there first, so my friends and I were loyal, yay us.

The night of the primary election we hung out in our headquarters on the town’s main street, watching the returns on TV. Some older guy tried to kick in the door, but it was locked. We watched, until it was clear that we lost. I went home to my little apartment, where all I had was a transistor radio, the battery of which of course gave out, so I went to bed.

The following morning I went downstairs to see the old couple whose house it was; they were glued to the tv in shock, still in their nightclothes. In a montage of the commentary, we watched Mankiewicz age about a century overnight. I could weep now for that memory.

And that was it. I knew it was all over for those of us trying to elect an antiwar candidate.

1968 was a terrible year for assassinations — how could it get even worse? Yet it did. We got to see the Chicago Dem Convention’s police riots unfold, and my friend from Long Beach State had friends who were there in person — one of whom was in his political party office minding his own business when the cops stormed in and threw him against the metal filing cabinets.

I could hardly wait to leave California, and had already been accepted to the university back where I came from in 1965. At LAX as I headed for my plane back to Hawai’i, I saw passengers from Chicago coming back, wearing black armbands.

How could it get worse? Well, we got Richard Nixon, didn’t we?

As for Hubert Humphrey, poor guy. I had to grow up some more to gain perspective on him — he had an exemplary record as a progressive from Minnesota, before agreeing to run with LBJ. And over many decades, LBJ himself was considerably re-evaluated, coming up as one of our great presidents on social justice policy — if only it had not been for the Vietnam War.

RIP, Bobby. You gave your all.
RIP to our other liberal Democratic politicians of that time, who each in their own way gave their all, even if not brought down by an assassin’s bullets.

RIP to our youth.