Doncha miss all the old '60's radicals/activists?

[HeeBGBz]

Chicago 7, Black Panthers, Weathermen, AIM, Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman and such. Please don't tell me they are all conservative republicans now.

[MikeG]

1. I miss Earl Warren the most.

[dflprincess]

17. And William Douglas

[Kikosexy2]

2. Heaven...

forbid...I miss the hippie days--peace love and rock n roll and drugs...can't forget the drugs. Acid anyone?

[Blue_In_AK]

46. You got some?? n/t

[Liberal Veteran]

3. Today they'd call 'em terrorists and haul 'em off to Gitmo.

No doubt.

[papau]

4. No - they are not all conservative republicans now! :-)

:-)

[Sanity Claws]

5. I miss radical priests.

Remember the line from an old Paul Simon song:


And the radical priest come to get me released
and we's all on the cover of Newsweek.

[politicaholic]

6. I miss Pat Boone...wait...no I don't.

[ChiciB1]

7. Hey, I'm Still Lurking!

Just hate to remember how it was. Watched a wonderful Bob Dylan/Joan Baez/Donovan piece on Discovery Times last night!

Got me depressed, but woke up and watched a GREAT show on C-Span!

Life goes on, and I'm still "in your face!"

[tmooses]

8. And Leonard Pelletier is STILL in prison

[me b zola]

95. No way!!

Still????

What do we have to do?

[tmooses]

108. Sad, but true, the more I read about his case, the more obvious the

gross injustice that has been done. This all seems like a FBI coverup going back 30 years. To get more info visit www.freepeltier.org .

[Mz Pip]

9. Some of us are still around

maybe not famous, though. I was in Chicago in 68 and it was quite a time. Too young to vote but not too young to make a lot of noise.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[tmooses]

10. Does Anyone Remember When "Weather Underground" didn't have ..

anything to do with the weather or computers?

[Lostnote03]

32. "Weather Report"....don't forget the band...lol

[Seabiscuit]

71. Yes, I remember - I wasn't a "Weatherman" because they quickly

descended into random acts of violence.

The "Weathermen" got their name from a Bob Dylan lyric: "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

[MaineDem]

11. I AM an old 60's radical/activist

Don't forget the SDS.

[Blue_In_AK]

47. Card-carrying member myself. :-)

This thread is making me smile.

[Seabiscuit]

70. Ditto. I still demonstrate - e.g. against the Iraq War in 2002- present

[klyon]

104. and yippies

I have never in my life condoned violence. That is where I drew the line then and now. I'm a hippie to the end but drugs are nowhere man.

KL

[housewolf]

12. Gawd how I miss the spirit of those days...

I didn't love some of the extremism and violence of those days, but I sure miss the spirit of revolution, the expansiveness and breakthroughs of those times. The commitment to equality and the raising-up of all people. Revolution was in the air and we were bustin' through ALL the boundaries! Mini-skirts and flowers in our long hair, peace beads, Woodstock, The Pill, commonunes, natural foods, and all the rest...

It broke my heart when Jerry Rubin became a Yuppie and opened a networking salon at Studio 59 in NYC.

The music continues and the memories...

I wish we had a new Bob Dylan and Joan Baez leading the protest against todays restrictions.

[starmaker]

16. I wish we had a new Bob Dylan and Joan Baez leading the protest

the movement has begun 1/6 was a historic day
your wish will be

great website spread the word

[Eloriel]

19. I miss the times more and more as OUR times go on

It hurts like hell, and I could easily spend most of my time in tears. I would go back in an instant -- and stay there. Forever. If I could. If I ever decide to loose the bounds of rationality, that'll be my destination.

THIS era wouldn't be nearly so difficult for me if it had even some of the hope, idealism and bouyancy of that time, but that's missing, at least from my perspective.

[housewolf]

24. You speak for me, also

I've been crying all afternoon and evening - and much of the last 2 and a half years, since the 2002 elections - feeling the repressions of this era. The weight of it is mighty and hope is shrouded in the mists ahead.

[starmaker]

13. many showed up on jan 6 in dc

i know that one brought his kid
60's activism was underground and we have the internet
yet we have to educate the uninformed
the base of this movement comes from the 60's
we have to get people in the streets
make a sign and show up anywhere
people are yearning for the truth

www.51capitalmarch.com

[Berserker]

14. Yes I do miss those days

as you can tell by my avatar.

[welshTerrier2]

15. was it really a movement?

you just can't really convey what it felt like?

"there was music in the cafes at night
and revolution in the air"

i think we really thought we could win ...

one reflection i have on those days, however, was that the "hippies" and "yippies" integrated "youth culture" with the political protests ... i remember "conning" people to go to demonstrations with me because their was going to be a great band there or they "always hand out free pot" at these things ...

i'm afraid many in our numbers were there only because it was cool or because of the draft ... without a sustaining vision, it had to be a dead-end for most ...

[housewolf]

26. It was a movement

A movement of its time, and when it's time passed so did it. The time of its passing was the early 1980's - when the hippies and yippies turned into yuppies and consumerism took over. When so many of the hippies became mainstream, started wearing suits, working on wall street and focued on making a lot of money, buying BMS's and living in up-scale houses.

I think that there is something about a "time" - an energy or enrgetic - that influences the people of the time, that the people of a time ride the energy and usher in whatever the "air" of the time is. I think it's a mutual thing - the energy of the time influences the individuals and the individuals in turn manifest the events of the time. Then the "time" evolves into a new "time" and people more on with it. I don't see it as a loss of vision - we did, after all make HUGE changes in those days.

But there seems to be something at work that strives to maintain an equilibrium of sorts - so that when things swing too far in one direction something pulls back in the other direction. This is what I think we are experiencing today, a regressive movement back away from the expansiveness of the 60's and 70's. It's been happening since the 80's - my hope is that we are at the most extreme point today and that we begin swinging back to the other direction in the near future.

These things move slowly, though, and it will only be known in the future when we can look back.

[welshTerrier2]

33. real good, housewolf ...

some great insights in what you wrote ... you know, right down to my soul, i'm not "living in the sixties", but it's "where i'm coming from" ...

my "awakening" was rooted in revolution ... we had a vision for the future and it seemed, though it was all too brief, that there was such a large force of collective energy that we couldn't be stopped ...

i don't see it as a loss of vision either ... i believe there are many of us who still see ... i guess the point i was trying to make was that many who stood with us never had "the vision" ... i was glad to have their support but i think many were more about pot and bellbottoms than an egalitarian vision of a new order ...

and most tragic of all, at least in my own experience, was the generation that followed our out of the universities ... so many MBA's ... i realize i'm generalizing, but i felt them "dragging on that pendulum" ... i never really understood why they weren't seeing what i saw ... maybe they just didn't have the same issues with the draft ...

hey, swing by the new PDA group sometime ... i'd love to hear more of your ideas ... we're "brand spanking new" as of today ...

[housewolf]

38. More on the 60's - 70's - and PDA

Yes, that's it perfectly - "that there was such a large force of collective energy that we couldn't be stopped ..." It was a force that was "bigger" than all of us, one that "used" us - so to speak - to move humanity and consciousness forward. We all had our roles to play... some were more "in tune" with the energy and held the vision than others.

I don't think it matters, though. We did't fail. We advanced the consciousness of humainty forward a bit along the evolutionary scale - and I think that is all that can be done in a short span of time. We really achieved quite a bit in that span of years.

Nonetheless, it was the defining time of our generation. I like how you put it "t's "where i'm coming from" ..." - That sense of communal activity and communal good IS the vision we hold.

I think that is what is so dispiriting to me now - the "me, mine" generation of self-centeredness and greed has overtaken the community spirit.

Ah, well.... Thanks for the invite to the PDA group. I stopped by earlier and will check back. Maybe I can scrounge up a few $ to donate to DU so I can post over there.

I applaud you for getting the PDA group started - I support them whole heartedly. I worked with their director, Tim Carperter, in 1992 on the Jerry Brown campaign in Southern Ca. He is a tireless worker for the progressive cause and a magnificant light upon this planet. He played a part in the political awakening I had at that time and hold him him in high esteem. Can't say enough good about him.

[welshTerrier2]

39. star bucks ...

not sure if there's a minimum you have to give to get a star ... maybe even just $10 ... not really sure ... DU pays you back in spades !!! send Skinner an email and he'll let you know what the deal is ...

check out my "personal revolution story" down near the bottom of this thread ... i tried to capture "how it felt" ... ahhh, but no writer I ... although i've improved since i've been posting on DU ...

don't know Tim but wow ... what higher praise could you offer ... maybe he'll stop by on here sometime ... i love to have people around with that kind of fire ...

[Seabiscuit]

81. Please don't speak for me or my generation

The spirit of the 60's never died in any of us. Its time never "passed" for us. I am still active politically, and still listen to 60's protest songs.

NONE of us turned into "yuppies". The "yuppies" were an entirely younger generation. "Consumerism" in mainstream never affected us as you imagine.

Also, don't equate "hippies" and "yippies". "Yippies" was a word coined by Abby Hoffman when he ran a pig, "Pigasus" for President during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago - which led to the police riots and the Chicago 8 - then Bobby Seale + the Chicago 7 trials.

"Hippies" was a media word used to box in young people in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco in 1966. It eventually became a media word to apply to our entire generation, whether we wore tie-died shirts and beads or not. And whether we like it or not.

The revolution my generation was involved in and continues to live by was both political, cultural, and personal, and cannot be labeled so simplistically.

[housewolf]

98. Ahhh...

It was my generation, too. I came of age in the late 60's and early 70's, we may have both been in college during the same years. My school-mates were being drafted and some enlisting from 1967 until the war ended.

It occurs to me that you do not like labels. I don't blame you - I despise being considered a "baby-boomer" but I'll use the media labels here becaue they are a convenient short-cut and I think we can agree on their meanings.


I wrote it as I experienced it. Many of my friends were hippies. We all called ourselves hippies because we thought we were "hip" and we were most definitely part of the movement. We were rebels and protestors. We joined communes, smoked dope, dropped acid, protested the war & nuclear weapons, got tear-gassed or arrested, went wild sexually, went to Jimmy Hendrix & Jamis Joplin concerts, loved Dylan & Baez, followed The Beatles to India to find the Maharishi, expanded our consciousness and pushed the boundaries of the culture of the time in every way possible. We were the "tune in, turn on and drop out" generation. We were from all over - Hawaii, San Francisco, LA, Ohio, New York, New England, Wisconsin, Virginia, Texas - you name it. We fought for civil rights, women's rights, equality for all people, acceptance and tolerance and social justice.

Some of my friends weren't. Some just wanted to get their education and weren't rebels and protesters. Some enlisted in the military and went willingly to Nam to fight the war. Some didn't come back. Some came back broken, some okay.

Some stayed active politically for a few years, working for peace, against nuclear weapons, for the environment. But by the time the Berlin Wall fell, it was over, in my experience.

Many I kept in touch with over the years. As with you, the Spirit of the Times never left them. But for most of us, it faded into the background. We listen to 60's music at times and it comes alive in us for a time but does not animate us on a daily basis as it did in the 60's and 70's.

Many of us (not all, of course) became yuppies in the 1980's, in our thirties. The ones I know cut their hair, dressed up, honed their resumes, focused on creating a "normal" middle-class life-style of climbing the corporate ladder, raising their kids, strived to make more and more money and turned into good little consumers, "buying up" the latest model or new "toy" every year. They pretty much fell asleep politically, came out to vote but not motivated to take political action. Until 2002 - 2004. Some of them have re-awakened politically over the past couple of years.

One of my saddest experiences was attending Jerry Rubin (co-founder of the Yippies)'s yuppie "networking" salon at Studio 59 in New York in 1983 - 84. It was a shock to see members of the protest generation all dressed up and out in a "status" location passing out business cards trying to find people they could use to advance their career paths.

Some didn't become yuppies. Let me here define what I mean by the term "yuppie." To me, it specifically refers to a group of people who, in the 80's, shifted their consciousness from trying to make the world a better place to being "me-and-mine" centered, strove join the ranks of mid-to-upper- middle class status, put their priority on climbing the corporate ladder and making money, maade a bunch of designers real happy buying brand-name everything from jeans to baby carriages, cared about "status" items like going to certain resaurants or buying certain brands of car for the status of it, etc. Mostly they were primarily concerned with making money and buying things of "status."

Today it seems that yuppies have morphed into the norm - the middle class that is being so squeezed today. Now they drive SUVs, worry about their 401K and buy a bigger house every 2 years, keeping themselves in debt up to the ears.

Anyway, that's my take on "the times" ...


I applaud you and others who have able to escape that fate. It warms me to hear that there are those, such as you, who continue to carry the spirit of the 60's. You give me hope.

[Seabiscuit]

105. I'm too old to have been labled a "baby boomer"

I was born May 2, 1945. Hitler had just died two days earlier, (although the American press didn't print that news until my birthday) but the bombs had not yet been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"Baby boomer" was an expression used to describe the "baby boom" which occurred *after* WWII was over and the GI's came home, got jobs, and began raising families.

So you're right, and very perceptive - I don't like labels. I've jokingly referred to myself at times as an "aging hippie" but I never called myself one in earnest - many people my age or younger, mostly younger did, but I didn't, even though I lived much of the lifestyle (without the "love beads", thank you).

I graduated High School in 1963. I registered black voters in Missisippi in the summer of 1964. I marched on Washington to protest Johnson's decision to send tons of troops to Vietnam in January, 1965, betraying his 1964 pre-election promise against Goldwater. That same year I helped rebuild a black baptist church which had been burned down by the KKK in Alabama. Pot hit the college campuses in 1966, just before I turned 21. My generation was involved in the civil rights movement before it was involved in the anti-Vietnam-war movement, and before some of us and many younger than us were labeled "hippies" by the press. My generation also supported the womens' rights movement and the gay rights movement and still does.

Back then, people just a few years older (like my older sister) or younger (like my younger brother - followers/imitators) than me were not really considered part of my "generation". No one my age that I have ever known ever "sold out" to "consumerism". I objected to your use of the term "yuppies" since that was a term used in the early 1980's to describe young successful professionals in their mid-20's to very early 30's, who had majored in business in college, who were materialistic and into money, cuisinarts and "Beemers" (BMW's). I was pushing 40 by then. I despised the term and despised the values of that generation, which had absolutely nothing in common with mine.

I have a feeling you're a few years younger than I am, and simply got lost on the concept of "yuppies", who came along some 10-15 years after we did. Let me guess. If some people your age began being drafted in 1967, that would make you 18 then, at a time I was 22. So I would guess we're about 3-5 years apart in age.

Perhaps some of the people you knew in your thirties threw away any "revolutionary" values they may have once indulged in superficially, became materialistic, and resembled "yuppies" to you, but that term was technically reserved for people considerably younger - in their mid-twenties to very early 30's. "Yuppies" certainly weren't people from my generation who "shifted their consciousness". They were much younger than me. Some of them were babies when I was graduating high school.

What you describe in this latest post rings many bells for me, and I'm glad we experienced many similar things and lived through those same times.

I recall Jerry Rubin selling out. His problem was he was older than both of us and was just having fun exploiting us all at the time, as was Abby Hoffman, also older, who ultimately betrayed us by selling cocaine. None of those in my generation were into "hard drugs". Just psychedelics. People older than me like Hoffman and people just a few years younger than me, like my younger brother, fell into speed and cocaine habits.

I never climbed any corporate ladders or resembled any "yuppies" in any way. But I did go back to Berkeley, got my degree there in political science, then a law degree, and have made a lot of money practicing law for years, but that just kind of happened along the way representing the little guy against their vile corporate oppressors. I made the bastids pay and pay. I didn't go into law to make a lot of money, I went into it because I believed in it - and people like Johnson and Nixon were breaking the law (both domestic and international), and they disgusted all of us along the way. When I go to court or deposition I wear a suit but it's just a "costume" I wear to get by.

The 60's were the "golden age" to me. Sure, a lot of time has passed, but I'm still the same person I was then - just live a little differently (wife and a baby boy - I mean, can you believe I first became a father last September???). I don't smoke pot any more, but my values haven't changed a bit. I still listen to protest songs and folk music from the 60's - not all the time, but it helps keep my spirit alive. And yes, I still go to every local protest against the Iraq war, and against Bush's presence in our city whenever he's here. I don't know why he keeps returning - he must know he's not welcome by now. :)

I was what the press branded a "Deaniac" in 2003-2004, and the "Sleepless Summer Tour" of 2003 brought back fond memories of the 60's to me. I contributed the max to his campaign and I continue to contribute heavily to progressive causes.

I feel sorry for the "yuppies" as you describe them. I've avoided debt as much as possible (except for mortgages, all of which have been paid off). I don't keep buying new toys and I don't keep buying new houses. I still drive Toyota Corollas (most people with my income own at least a Porsche or Ferrari - who needs it???) and manage my own investments (for my family's welfare). More importantly, I moved to where I live to raise a family. Money means nothing to me still except to provide for my wife and children (hoping for a second in a year or two). I'm no health nut, but I'm doing the best I can to stay healthy enough live to be 100 years young at least, for my (much younger) wife and children's sake.

I enjoyed reading your second post. Sorry if I came off a bit strong in my first response. Glad to hear I've given you hope. Believe me, there are a lot of us out there just like me. I've kept in touch with dozens of them over the years.

[housewolf]

112. I am proud to get to know you

Thanks, Seabiscuit, for your post. You reveal much about yourself.

Yes, I am a little younger than you and you guessed it correctly - I was born in 1949, started college in 1967.

I applaud the hard civil rights and voting work you did in the south. You and your collegues were on the front-lines with that work and gave selflessly of your time and energy for a great cause. Many put their lives on hold to go there and work, and some gave their lives for that cause.

Your story is a lifetime of service to the cause of liberty, justice and help for those in need. I am happy to hear that the spirit of progress remains with you and continues to animate you.

Congratulations on becoming a father for the first time! That is wonderful and I am so happy for you. I imagine that your wife and young son have enriched your life in many ways.

I yearn for the spirit of those days to be present in society today, I keep thinking that we desperately need it. I have yet to see massive outrage against the unjustices of today that can coaleasce into such a spirit determined to progress liberty further. I keep looking for it, and I keep waiting for the majority of Americans to wake up and wonder what will take for them to do so.

Peace....

[Seabiscuit]

115. Why thank you, "housewolf". What a sweet post.

You know what? If some genie had visited me when I was young and guaranteed me a billion dollars by age 25, a Playboy Playmate of my choice for a wife, and genius kids by age 30 if I just sold out and worked for the likes of Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan and the Bush family and voted Republican in every election for the rest of my life...

I'd tell him to get lost and I'll live my life my way... and in retrospect, wouldn't change a thing - not even all the lean years, and there were a lot of them.

It is sad that the spirit of the 60's seems lost to those of us who didn't live through it - hopefully if we can continue reaching out to the young, a new generation may come along that "gets it". I'll always keep the faith. Maybe my son will lead us all back there someday. :)

Meanwhile, I'll remember your handle and look for your posts here on DU. Nice to get to know a fellow 60's soul-mate (or, as we said at Woodstock, "head" or "freak").

Peace to you and yours.

:hippie:

[housewolf]

116. Interesting that you said that about your son...

I had a similar thought while I was writing the post earlier, something to the effect that your son could be one of the leaders of the next wave of "freedom fighters" in the US.

Gosh I hope we don't have to wait that long though!

:)

[Seabiscuit]

117. I hope we don't have to wait that long either...

I hope he'll grow up in a better world than we live in right now.

[Clark2008]

100. My Mom first felt me kick when Pete Townshend kicked

Abbie Hoffman off the stage at Woodstock.

LOL!

I was born at the end of the age of Aquarius - January 1970.

But, as my son said when he first saw Bill Clinton and I told him that Bill was prez when he was born in 1999, "at least I didn't miss THAT, entirely!"

;)

[Seabiscuit]

106. LOL!!! Good for you and your son!

I'm old enough to be your father. :)

[Lefty48197]

18. Hell yeah. Where have all the cajones gone?

.

[Selatius]

20. Similar organizations to the SDS could actually emerge given the situation

Students for a Democratic Society was a good student organization before it splintered and broke apart. The Weather Underground was one faction that broke off of it, and for the record, I don't support violence as the first method for change. It's goals were good overall in the early years before it began flying apart. (It could very well have fallen victim to the US gov't's COINTELPRO)

The Bush Administration's corporatism, the chipping away of civil liberties, and the Iraq War can be quite a motivator towards making people act.

According to Wikipedia, a newer incarnation of SDS was revived in 2003 with "a few chapters at colleges in the Midwest and Northeast." Perhaps it might re-emerge on the national level if it can gain traction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Students_for_a_Democratic_Society

[EVDebs]

23. not unless way way way underground. "Desaparacidos" like in Chile

would be more like it if they stayed above ground. You need the new "Knights Templar" with layered secrecy to even begin something that the government couldn't destroy. Look, Total Information Awareness isn't dead, it's just gone to the Bahamas with CAPPS II and Ben Bell et al. Offshore, with no accountablility...and Republican rightwingnuts just love that...they can go after anybody they want now.

[EVDebs]

21. When the YIPPIES took over the Disneyland Chicken of the Sea

pirate ship and unfurled the "Free Mickey Mouse" banners, little did they know that Disney was soooooo CIA'd up. Later with the Bill Casey/ABC-CapCities stock dustup you'da thought someone woulda said something.

But it was Acid Dreams and the CIA's own involvement in spreading the window pane around that is sooooooooo funny. Captn' Tripps, Dr Tim Leary (all the while a shill for the feds), what a trip indeed !

[HeeBGBz]

22. Do we have an addiction to our stuff?

Is it people are scared to lose their possessions and their standing in the social order? Does the fear of being shunned and labeled keep the wounded majority silent?

[BlackVelvet04]

25. Don't forget the early 70's, either.

I'm getting too old for this shit. Why is it so hard to get young people involved now? I was attending some classes at a local college and the "kids" were complaining that marijuana was not legal and I asked them what they were doing about it.....you would have thought I was a little green woman from mars or something. Not a one of them had every signed a petition or written a letter to their representative or been in any kind of demonstration. Gheesh, what made them think anything would change without fighting for it?

[Bouncy Ball]

27. God yes, I miss 'em

and I wasn't even old enough to understand it all when they were active.

Thing is, we need today's version of those organizations.

[David Zephyr]

28. I highly recommend Tom Hayden's "Rebel" to all interested in this period

Tom Hayden's "Rebel" is a camera angle into the 1960's and the progressive activism in that era that provides breathtaking clarity, historical perspective and a wonderful trip down memory lane for activists who lived during that time period.

Best of all, it's Tom Hayden with his sharp intellect and crisp communication skills telling the story as only he could.

[DrWeird]

29. Weathermen are dead. Black Panthers are dead.

Weather Underground are in jail, republican, or dead.

I think Abbie Hoffman sold out or something, I forget.

[Blue_In_AK]

48. Abbie committed "suicide," allegedly. n/t

[klyon]

107. not true

the new Black Panthers will be protesting in DC this week. Join them at Malcolm X Park.

KL

[kskiska]

30. There's a great PBS documentary on the Weathermen

"Weather Underground" – you can rent it at Blockbuster. It tells their story, interspersed with interviews. At the end it tells what they're all doing today. Some, like Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn are working within the system as college professors. They never did jail time. The government screwed up and their case was thrown out.

[EVDebs]

83. Yeah, the government screwed up BIGTIME. Someone stole

the government's files on how they were doing all kinds of illegal activity (much like Patriot Act, sneek/peek breakins etc) on otherwise innocent citizens. This prevented the FBI from 'going after' those still underground or who had recently popped up.

Great documentary. Should have tied into the MLK murder, since the MOGs military operations groups were after MLK worse than Hoover ever was. Even had to change the Army's intell units name after the '70's infor came out to Congress.

[T Town Jake]

31. Not a bit...

...it was such that gave us Nixon first and Reagan later - and in landslides. What I really "miss" is the Hubert Humphrey/Scoop Jackson Democrats, whose decent, sensible message and election chances were buried in the GOP's ability (aided by the MSM) to make hay with the sporadic horseshit activities of those "old '60's radicals/activists." Thanks, guys... :eyes:

[Hardrada]

41. I'm not sure

But I don't think those of us in the SDS were in numbers sufficient enough to influence an election. I would suggest that the George Wallace candidacy (I forgot the name of his party) siphoned off enough formerly Democratic votes to help get Nixon elected. I also noticed that the Peace and Freedom Party with Eldridge Cleaver as candidate did not get very many votes.

[T Town Jake]

49. Well, the answer to that is so obvious...

...as to defy parody. It wasn't the SDS's "numbers" that helped put Tricky Dick in office - it was their actions. Poor old Hubert Humphrey, one of the finest Democrats who ever lived, caught nothing but living hell thanks to the "New Left" from two sides: 1. the tiny sliver of "New Left" activists whom decided they'd rather be "pure" than accept Lyndon Johnson's Vice President, and (much more importantly) 2. the GOP, which ran the silly, impotent antics of the SDS (among others) up the Democratic Party's ass by inflating every isolated draft-card torching into the equivalent of a full-scale communist assault on God & Country.

Note to "Hardrada": the GOP would not have been able to do that, to any real effect, were it not for such as the SDS, and their later imitators (many of whom eventually turned to real, though sporadic & isolated, violence in that era).

I happen to believe that Hubert Humphrey would've made a great president - surely superior to what we ultimately got.

[Hardrada]

52. There is some truth

In what you say. HHH did end up on the wrong side of history but perhaps it would have been a good idea for him to part company with LBJ on the war or at least indicate he would handle things differently. Our goal in SDS was not to do showy stuff like the Yippies did (there were numerous strands in the Left and we were but one of them) but to elevate the awareness of those we encountered to the general social, political and economic injustice of our society and the way the capitalist political parties were intertwined with the injustice of the Viet Nam War and militarism in general. I thought the shift to the later violent sectarianism in the Left was an error. I had nothing personal against HHH. He was an OK mayor of Minneapolis and my grandparents, New Deal Democrats, admired him immensely. It was simply tragic he could not distance himself more from what Jimmy Carter later referred to as "a genocidal war."

[trezic]

92. My take on the New Left

The New Left was an abysmal failure. It was spoiled children whining that they didn't want responsibility for anything. Rather than organize effectively, which was too much like work, they decided to sit around, smoke dope, and just try to shock people. Wonderful strategy. Real effective.

I have to agree with Jake. This absurd obsession with ideological purity is why Democrats lose so often. It was the ascendent New Left in the mid-70s that purged the South of its congressional chairmanships and replaced them with purists. We have seen the overwhelming success of this strategy. First, the South leaves the party. Now, we see Catholics leaving the party, even when it runs a Catholic candidate.

What this party desperately needs is a return to the ideals of those who the New Left derided as 'cold war liberals.' This means a return to the traditions of FDR, Truman, and LBJ, who understood how to win and how to govern effectively. What exactly does this mean?

It's time to toss the social issues overboard. Frankly, running on social issues, which is all Democrats seem to do anymore, is a loser (unless of course, you're Kerry, in which case I have yet to figure out what you ran on). It's time to organize priorities. What is more important, gay marriage or the fact that real wages have stagnated, at best, over the last 25 years or so? Which is more prudent, futilely continuing to protest the invasion of Iraq or recognizing that since we're in it, we might as well get it done right? Identity politics or recognizing that there is a vast majority of Americans (crossing the seeming barriers of race and religion) who will unite over their shared economic interests? Which is more realistic, pissing and moaning over Republican foreign policy or formulating a coherent one of your own?

There is no way that any party can do everything it wants, and have it stand, in one generation. FDR could bring farmers into the 20th century, but he couldn't do it for blacks. Truman could desegrate the military and open up home ownership, but he couldn't guarantee the right to vote. LBJ could fight the cold war and finally finish Reconstruction, but he couldn't finish off the New Deal as well. Figure out what's most important (obviously economic issues for me) and focus on it. As a practical matter, it's a lot easier to run on just a few issues than it is to run on every issue.

Afterthought...

The motivation of the early SDS I can admire. The fact they were extremely naive, by allowing communists to participate, is regrettable, but it was consistent with their openmindedness. The real problem I have with that generation is that they were born to privilege, relative to all others, and had no idea of what that privilege cost. They were all too willing to spit on the people who gave them prosperity because they wanted immediate gratification. The New Left should be viewed as a cautionary tale, not an inspirational one.

[David Zephyr]

114. Just an observation.

I see that you have at the time of my posting the photo of Robert Kennedy as your Avatar Image here at the DU --- the same Kennedy who was Humphrey's opponent for the nomination and who would have been the nominee of the Democratic Party had he not been gunned down here in Los Angeles that terrible evening after he had won the California Primary.

Robert Kennedy's positions, T Town Jake, were far closer to those of the New Left in 1968 than those of Hubert Humphrey and I am curious as to why you offer so much disdain against some very fine activists.

Did you know that Tom Hayden, one of the architects of the New Left and leader of the anti-war movement had been with Robert Kennedy on the very night before Kennedy was murdered? Or that Hayden had a very close relationship with Robert Kennedy?

As one poster above wrote, George Wallace's independent quest for the presidency had a lot to do with Nixon's victory.

Still another important component that made a critical difference in Nixon's victory would be the disenfranchisement of Dixiecrats by LBJ's admirable signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voter's Rights Act. Republicans have worked that issue tirelessly for forty years now.

Certainly, Henry Kissinger's' treachery against Johnson and Humphrey by cutting a deal with Nixon for the position of Secretary of State by signaling to the South Vietnamese leadership to pull back from the peace arrangements they'd earlier agreed to can not be ignored. It sank any last chance that Humphrey may have ever had.

But more than anything else, T Town Jake, I would have to say that the main reason that Richard Nixon finally became president in 1968 was because Bobby Kennedy had been murdered. The same Bobby Kennedy who identified and associated freely with the New Left that for some reason you seem to vilify and blame Humphrey's loss on. Not fair at all.

And by the way, Hubert Humphrey was a great champion of Civil Rights back in the 1940's and 1950's and has my respect there. However, his 'staying the course' with Johnson's stupid and unforgivable venture in Vietnam which cost nearly 60,000 American lives and nearly 3 million Indo-Chinese lives conjurs up images of our present day Democrats who were too intimidated by Republicans who challenged their patriotism to have stood up to Bush and his disastrous war in Iraq.

[Zhade]

78. You don't have to miss the Scoop Jackson Democrats...

Just go hang out with fellow admirers and former members of Jackson's staff, like Richard "Prince of Darkness" Perle (who is STILL a registered Democrat), Douglas Feith, Elliott Abrams, and Paul Wolfowitz.

Or you could find some of those Jackson Democrats Reagan spoke so highly of, saying "I am deeply proud — as he would have been — to have Jackson Democrats serve in my administration. I am proud some of them have found a home here."

I'd personally be really worried to find out I had anything in common politically with these people.

[T Town Jake]

86. That's a cute attempt at a smear and all...

...but I could care less what you think about that or anything else, really. Have a nice day.

[Zhade]

96. Oh, it's not a smear. Those are facts.

NT!

[welshTerrier2]

34. welshTerrier2, bona fide revolutionary ...

i posted this a couple of days ago in another thread but thought some of you old timers would enjoy it ... the bright lights of revolution had brought the front lines to my university ... it was my turn to stand and fight ... hope you like the story ... it's 100% true and it really happened to me ...

the setting: May, 1970 a couple of days after Kent State

students took over the campus at my university in response to the bombing of Cambodia and the Kent State murders ...

we erected barriers all around the campus to keep out the police and the national guard ... the barriers were made from everything and anything we could find ... chairs and desks, coatracks and an endless supply of fencing and other construction materials that were "borrowed" from the many buildings under construction all around the campus ...

close to a thousand students spent the night in one of the main buildings in the center of the campus ... we did not expect to be able to "hold" the campus without a major battle ... the revolution had begun and peace signs and marches were no longer going to suffice ... if we wanted power, we were going to have to take power ...

my job? i volunteered to stay up all night with my roommate to guard the main entrance to the campus ... even in May, it was damned cold out there ... by morning i was so stiff i could barely move ...

at the crack of dawn, things started to happen ... first, we saw just a lone police car drive by the main road just off the campus ... then, another ... then 3 or 4 together ... we discussed whether we should wake everyone up and call them to the front lines ... not yet ... we had to be sure ...

then, a couple of police cars with a large dump truck drove by ... cops inside? national guard? ... and then, a large enclosed truck with a university emblem turned into the main campus road and stopped before it came up to where we were ... this was it ... we had no idea how many were inside, but we couldn't allow them to breach our barrier at the main gate ...

we ran to the building where most were still sleeping and woke everyone up ... they're coming; they're coming ... you could hear the same cries repeated by others throughout other floors in the building ... literally within a minute, maybe two, we had a force of almost a thousand headbanded revolutionaries carrying pipes, tree branches or whatever they could to hold the campus ...

the truck still sat motionless ... perhaps 75 yards from us ... were they waiting for a signal? waiting for backup? we had no idea what to do ... and then, the truck, slowly, very, very slowly, started moving towards us ...

man, this was it ... this time we're not backing down ... the Kent State murders were very fresh in our minds ... but if we had to die, this was going to be the place and this was going to be the time ... we knew this was happening on every campus all over the country ... if enough of us stood our ground, maybe we would prevail against all that power ... the truck pulled right up to us and stopped ... we waited for the back door to be thrown open ...

one guy, the driver, wearing a campus uniform, stepped out of the truck and approached us ... are you FBI someone challenged him? did you kids have some kind of party here last night, he responded ... who's in the back of that truck? it's equipment for cleaning up this mess ... yup, we had successfully fended off two of the friendliest guys from the school's maintenance department you'd ever want to meet ....

[dbeach]

35. Jerry R., Abbey H. both dead

and Russ Means of AIM was in movie'Last of Mohegan"..
most of 60s hippies and yippies sold out to the establishment{translate as bush criminal syndicate/power elite} for shining rocks and pieces of paper...
heyden ,rene davis have questionable credentials as liberals although heyden will still hammer at VN Veterans in defense of his jane..[heyden wrote article in Nation mag saying retuning VN Veterans were NEVER spit on at airports which is total lie}

[dbeach]

36. draft was changed to lottery system in '72

and activism waned related to safeness from draft and also war slowed as congress stopped funding it..
Nixon used black-ops funds til he too was gone and ford presided over the last days
VN War ended 4/30/75 with fall of Saigon

[welshTerrier2]

37. nope ... first draft lottery was 12/1/1969 ...

wanna see what number you would have (or did) drawn based on your birthday ...

here's a link (scroll down to the chart): http://www.landscaper.net/draft.htm#How's%20your%20%22Luck%20of%20the%20Draw%22?

[dbeach]

40. OOPS

1969 I was at Ho Chi Miens party...
You know the one all those so-called govt leaders supported but avoided So I call em "chikenhawks"..so do many others..

[Clark2008]

101. My Dad always said my birth (wasn't planned like Cheney's kids)

saved him from the draft.

Jeebus H. Crimminey! Now I see why!!

Dec 9 43

Woah, Daddy. You're welcome!

[HeeBGBz]

79. I remember when I lived in Portland Oregon

The apartment I had moved into looked like someone moved out quickly. Leftover dishes and stuff when we moved in. Hadn't been there long when someone came to the door. Turned out to be FBI looking for the previous resident who supposedly was a part of AIM. Scared the crap outa me.

There were some carved items that I found in the apartment. I think one was a bear and one was something else. I kept them for a long time.

[Hardrada]

42. Where are we now?

I was in the SDS albeit not in the Weatherman faction. I was active in antiwar movement and was an anarchist. (We did not, of course, see eye to eye with the Progressive Labor Party who were all Maoists). In March of 2003 I joined the parade again and marched under the good old black and red anarcho-syndicalist flag.We were at the head of the march in Madison WI. I hope the antiwar movement gets going again. Until more protests with greater numbers I do the LTTE thing. And send funds to progressive causes.

[Rockerdem]

43. Deep down, a part of Bush misses it

He was flying fighters on pot 'n acid, until those damn drug tests reared their ugly heads and Laura went frigid on him.

[sarahlee]

44. Hey! Who you callin'

old?

[Seabiscuit]

80. LOL! I, for one, am 59 years YOUNG!

I was in my teens-twenties in the 60's and in the thick of it! And still doing what I can to fight a government gone awry.

[sarahlee]

85. I'm about that young as well.

Never stopped fighting against the machine. My partner helped start "The Fifth Estate"

[Seabiscuit]

90. I vaguely recall the "Fifth Estate". Refresh my recollection, please.

I know the media was known back then as the "fourth estate". I recall hearing about something called the "Fifth Estate". What was it again?

[Blue_In_AK]

45. NOPE

I'm still here. Hippie Grandma. :hippie:

[janx]

50. Some yes, some no.

Some were sincere, and some were into it for the trend.

[Cookie wookie]

51. Yes I miss it. One of the problems is the lack of any media

coverage of protests, they are happening, we just don't see it. When I need a dose of inspiration, I watch this video:

Near the top of the page, see "The Myth of a Divided
America" at http://www.insurgentvoice.org/Myth_of_divided_america.htm.

[Piperay]

53. Well ...

what I really miss being that young. :-(

[orleans]

54. ah.....yes....those were the good old days

and i was just a tiny bit too young for them--i didn't fully appreciate what was going on, but i was intrigued by them and the rebel leaders.

i have a great video that hbo put out years ago called conspiracy: the trial of the chicago 8 (including bobby seal), got it off of ebay and highly recommend it to anyone who needs a refresher course in the 1968 democratic convention and the insane trial that followed.

i was just a kid the first time i noticed or paid attention to jesse jackson--he was on tv (he may have been in a classroom, i don't know) and there was a little girl he was speaking to. and he wanted her to say "i'm black and i'm beautiful" (she was black, by the way, and she was beautiful). and i watched as the little girl repeated the phrase. and i thought it was so wonderful. i asked my mom who that man was. i was a kid--but i was impressed.

[proudbluestater]

55. Yes, I really miss those who were unafraid of the government

On the other hand, they weren't usually faced with TANKS when they showed up to protest like folks are now.

[The Flaming Red Head]

56. I wish every day that Allen Ginsberg were still alive

To chronicle W and the torture and the fake on terrorism. He'd probably be on a watch list.

I MISS HIM.

[The Flaming Red Head]

57. After the Big Parade

After the Big Parade

Millions of people cheering and waving flags for joy in Manhattan Yesterday've returned to their jobs and arthritis now Tuesday-- What made them want so much passion at last, such mutual delight Will they ever regain these hours of confetti'd ecstasy again? Have they forgotten that Corridors of Death gave such victory? Will 200 thousand more desert deaths across the world be cause for the next rejoicing?

(Allen Ginsberg, 6/11/91)

[two gun sid]

58. We don't need 60's style radicals

We need to build our own movements. Yes, I admire them and they were the hero's of my youth but, they can't come back and save us. Let's give a nod to the past then go out and fight Bushco ourselves.

[MaineDem]

59. "they can't come back and save us"

Some of us have never left. ;)

[Seabiscuit]

74. Yup. We're still here.

[Gyre]

60. We all got older and assumed responsibilities

That's the way of the world. When you're young and don't own anything, or responsibilities to other people, you can afford to get locked up, or get your house tossed by police, or questioned by the FBI.

As far as I'm concerned, it's up to the young to be that kind of thorn in the side of a corrupt administration. I'm still a vocal, far leftist, but I'm not going to jeopardize the life I've built for a nation largely consisting of apathetic sheep. Based on what I've seen, "the young" are too busy watching the bubble over Rupert Murdock's head to be bothered by illegal and immoral governance of their own country.

The fuel for that kind of in-the-streets anger was in the draft combined with a media that was actually reporting the news. We have neither at the moment.

Gyre

[Cookie wookie]

61. I agree.

"When you're young and don't own anything, or responsibilities to other people, you can afford to get locked up, or get your house tossed by police, or questioned by the FBI."

But now that we're older we can fight other ways, within the law, we can work to change things through the system. It's hard when those who hold all the power in the system are corrupt, but it's a fight we can and are taking on, which is one reason the Dean movement has been so attractive to me. Cleaning our political house from the bottom up.

And we can still march and carry signs. I've been doing it but I don't mind saying I've wished many times over that more of the youth of this nation would rise up and become a force to reckon with instead of sleeping it out. What I've wondered is if those youth who are not involved in fighting for democracy now have just been educated to be sheep by tv, video games, and films. That maybe they are lacking a moral compass. They should be outraged by what's happening but don't seem to get it -- as in invading countries in violation of international law, disrespecting the need for the UN, destroying the environment and allowing torture are not American virtues no matter how the media and politicians spin it.

The draft was not the only motivator for our generation's peace movement, though a primary force. Women back then were second class citizens as well as African Americans, although we could at least vote without having to worry about being killed, which was what Blacks faced. We couldn't get home loans, we were delegated to service roles professionally, our incomes were dependent on men totally. And of course, abortion was against the law. That's the role neo-christians are chomping at the bit to reinstate for women. Can't put the genie back in the bottle though, so to speak.

[starmaker]

63. carry a sign hand out truth

we must become visible and explain our grievances
the sea of orange in lafayette park was uplifting on 1/6
i want to thank the activists of the 60's
the spirit has been revived and redirected
a march took place on the streets of dc
without a permit because of a 60's activist

[Cookie wookie]

65. COOL.

Did you see the video at the link I posted upthread? Lots of young faces in it, along with us old hippie types.

[starmaker]

82. took a lot of pictures on 1/6

for 51capitalmarch.com
should be forthcoming soon
classic signs
most peaceful bunch

[Seabiscuit]

72. Yes. Just because we grew up and took on the responsibilities of life

and see no point in recklessly landing in jail, doesn't mean we've changed our outlook.

We can still demonstrate against this ugly, ugly war, and against the neo-con imperialist clique which stole our country from us.

We can demonstrate in the streets (I've joined numerous demonstrations against the war and against Bush - every time he visits our city we're out their in the thousands heckling him), donate to progressive causes, and join Democracy for America - the grassroots group Howard Dean started after his candidacy ended.

We don't need a "draft" or even a responsible media to be effective. We need money, organization, and visibility in the streets.

I'm still there on all three fronts.

[Seabiscuit]

73. Here's something we can all do today.

Join the Boxer Rebellion Part Deux:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1497023

[Piperay]

102. I agree

it's time for the generation that has their whole lives ahead of them to step up and make sure they have a bright future, they can't depend on us to do it for them. I will help as much as I can but the fact is that they are the ones who are going to have to live with the chimp legacy for longer than I have to.

[kk897]

62. I was born in '65 and *I* miss them, even!

I've been thinking a LOT about why there hasn't been a massive movement to change things the way there were in the 60s. Something has happened to dampen that ability... I don't know what.

I've thought that perhaps it was the violence of the era. The many riots. The Panthers arming themselves. Maybe the Establishment felt threatened enough to throw the people a few sops and "change" things, so the radicals started to feel a little placated?

Sadly, the violence was born from such dire circumstances. Perhaps the circumstances are as dire now, but they're more subtle evils, and harder to detect.

When I was out protesting the election fraud last month, I kept wondering where the kids were. We usually get college students out for anti-war protests, at least to a small degree, but not for a stolen election and the undermining of any little bit of power the average person has and the practical elimination of democracy. Go figure.

But you know, now that I'm thinking about it, when I was a college student protesting the first Iraq war, there were far more of us then, and according to the polls, the support for that war was even greater. NOW rallies for reproductive rights then pulled more people in than anti-war (or election theft) rallies now. And it wasn't like the media was covering these events then.

Something has happened... any theories?

[Cookie wookie]

67. The circumstances seem more dire now than then.

Place the blame squarely on the MSM. They are not covering the protests. They are pumping out right-wing propaganda 24/7. People who aren't proactive in finding alternative viewpoints are lulled by the MSM into a sense of unreality, that everything is copacetic. Members of own family argued with me vehemently until only a few months ago that the MSM wasn't biased!

If the movement to demand verified, auditible, transparent voting processes wasn't on the top of my list of activist causes, I'd be using that time and energy solely in trying to overthrow the illegitimate hold that corporations have on the media. After all, the airwaves belong to the American people, not a few corporations, and we need to take them back. The 1996 deregulation of the media as well as the loss of the Fairness Doctrine during Reagan have contributed mightily to this degradation of the media, in addition of course, to the unpunished and ongoing corruption in our government.

[Dees]

64. Angela Davis, Eldrige Cleaver, Mario Savio (free speech

movement leader), Bobby Seale and Huey Newton and one of my personal favs Ron Dellums...Congressman from California. These names should wake some old memories. There was a spirit in the sixties to never be relived. For the times they are a changin'....

[fooj]

66. "When will they ever learn...

when will they ever learn?" Where are all the anti-war songs...the silence can be deafening at times. It makes me sad. Where's the outrage?

[Cookie wookie]

68. If the sound is there but we can't hear it . . . .

Americans are making noise. The past is not gone, it's here now. The only difference is that corruption has been institutionalized, gained a strong foothold. That cancer that John Dean spoke of has metastasized. But the illusion that all's quiet is just that.

We have to be the media. We have to publicize our marches and rallies, our legislation, our work. That's what DU does. If anything, the Internet is now an extension of the streets of America, and our posts are our banners, our words are our songs, our poetry. Fully one-half of this nation may be bloodied, literally and figuratively, but we are not bowed.

For some welcome noise this morning, check out:
http://www.insurgentvoice.org
http://www.signsofprotest.com/

There are probably lots more, so if others have links please share them.

For great new protest music:
http://www.supaclean.com/, where "Oil Change" and "Beat the Bushes" from the video posted above come from.

[EVDebs]

84. To the tune of "Ohio" by Crosby Stills Nash and Young.....

From the amazing website at
http://www.oilempire.us/stolenelection2004.html

"Vote Fraud in Ohio"

Lost ballots and Diebold's counting
We're finally on our own
This winter I hear Bush laughing
Vote Fraud in Ohio

Gotta get real ballots
Paperless taking us down
Should have been done long ago
Keep blacks from voting and
TV won't make a sound
Kerry won, but he said no.

Vote Fraud in Ohio
Vote Fraud in Florida
Vote Fraud in Nevada
Vote Fraud in Iowa
Vote Fraud New Mexico ..."

Kerrrrry on, Love is coming, Love is coming to us allllll !

[fooj]

88. thanks...

Great sites!!!

[TexasLawyer]

93. Great Photos

I have lots of new ideas for the 20th-- Inauguration Day, you know.

[housewolf]

91. Here was one

from just a few months ago:


MOSH


I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
And to the Republic for which it stands
One nation under God
Indivisible・
It feels so good to be back..]

Scrutinize every word, memorize every line
I spit it once, refuel, reenergize, and rewind
I give sight to the blind, mind sight through the mind
I ostracize my right to express when I feel it's time
It's just all in your mind, what you interpret it as
I say to fight you take it as I知 gonna whip someone's ass
If you don't understand don't even bother to ask
A father who has grown up with a fatherless past
Who has blown up now to rap phenomenon that has
Or at least shows no difficulty multi task
And juggling both, perhaps mastered his craft slash
Entrepreneur who has held long too few more rap acts
Who has had a few obstacles thrown his way through the last half
Of his career typical manure moving past that
Mister kiss his ass crack, he's a class act
Rubber band man, yea he just snaps back

Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't stear you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors

To the people up top, on the side and the middle,
Come together, let's all bomb and swamp just a little
Just let it gradually build, from the front to the back
All you can see is a sea of people, some white and some black
Don't matter what color, all that matters is we gathered together
To celebrate for the same cause, no matter the weather
If it rains let it rain, yea the wetter the better
They ain't gonna stop us, they can't, we're stronger now more then ever,
They tell us no we say yea, they tell us stop we say go,
Rebel with a rebel yell, raise hell we gonna let em know
Stomp, push up, mush, fuck Bush, until they bring our troops home come on just . . .

Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't stear you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors, come on

Imagine it pouring, it's raining down on us,
Mosh pits outside the oval office
Someone's trying to tell us something, maybe this is God just saying
we're responsible for this monster, this coward, that we have empowered
This is Bin Laden, look at his head nodding,
How could we allow something like this, Without pumping our fist
Now this is our, final hour
Let me be the voice, and your strength, and your choice
Let me simplify the rhyme, just to amplify the noise
Try to amplify the times it, and multiply it by six
Teen million people are equal of this high pitch
Maybe we can reach Al Quaida through my speech
Let the President answer on high anarchy
Strap him with AK-47, let him go
Fight his own war, let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our soil
No more psychological warfare to trick us to think that we ain't loyal
If we don't serve our own country we're patronizing a hero
Look in his eyes, it's all lies, the stars and stripes
They've been swiped, washed out and wiped,
And Replaced with his own face, mosh now or die
If I get sniped tonight you'll know why, because I told you to fight

So come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't stear you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors


And as we proceed, to mosh through this desert storm, in these closing statements, if they should argue, let us beg to differ, as we set aside our differences, and assemble our own army, to disarm this weapon of mass destruction that we call our president, for the present, and mosh for the future of our next generation, to speak and be heard, Mr. President, Mr. Senator

[Seabiscuit]

69. Don't worry. Many of us are still here. We're not Repukes.

Many from our generation survived intact and although we've settled down and had families, we haven't given up the fight. I don't know of a single member of my generation who went over to the Dark Side.

[BlueInRed]

76. I love your screen name

I love that movie about the little horse that could!

[BlueInRed]

75. Can you imagine

if Lincoln had the view of many leaders today, or the Supreme Court in 1954, or Johnson when passing the Civil Rights Act, or MLK or RFK or Rosa Parks, etc, etc.

I am just thankful for those brave people who were willing to go to the mat for ideas they thought were right. Otherwise, we'd still have slaverly, or separate by equal, or no anti-discrimination laws.

I'm still waiting to see what issue Democrats will go to the mat for -- what is the line in the sand that no Democrat is willing to cross? I haven't seen a single issue that at least some Democrats don't peel off of. That to me is very sad. We should have some values so fundamental that every elected Democrat is willing to stand firm for.

[mvd]

77. I wasn't around then, but..

I don't believe that that many of the protesters turned neo-con. It takes youth to really get things started, and the RW and media has succeeded in producing an attitude of apathy among today's youth. Many of the baby-boomers don't have it in them anymore to get their children involved.

[thecorster]

87. no one has the nerve anymore

our generation (I'm speaking as a 21 year old here) either doesnt care enough or doesnt have the balls to protest. We're afraid of this Big Brother society where ThoughtPolice will come get you. I know my dad tells me to stay in the shadows... but what good does that do?

[Cookie wookie]

89. It's called going underground. Looks like you're in the right place. n/t

[annabanana]

111. Silence implies assent............

You cannot afford to stay mum.. your ass is on the line (along with my sons)

[me b zola]

94. I met David Dellinger

In 1993, in Columbia, Missouri. He was most definitely still the dissident that he was as a member of the Chicago 7. What a wonderful man.

[RadicalMom]

97. Abbie Hoffman personally autographed and tore up my..

husband's draft card. In Chicago. And I think most of us are still of the same mind. That has a lot to do with being here on DU for many.

[Clark2008]

99. Miss 'em?

How could I miss them?!

My parents WERE 'them.'

Thankfully, I hear my Mom bitch about Bush every day.

Bless her heart! :loveya:

[klyon]

103. I am very sorry we have forgotten the lessons learned in the 60's

I am very disappointed in my generation, I thought the future would be better when we were in charge,instead a black cloud has moved in and will never leave. Batman has lost.

KL

[Radical Activist]

109. People talk about young people not being active today

but when I got to meetings to organize protests and volunteer on election campaigns I see more college students than baby boomers. I'm an activist in my 20's that plays Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie songs, and I can't help but wonder why I don't see more than a few boomers anyplace I go to be involved. Are you all too busy being responsible and watching the grandkids? Teach your kids and grandkids well. Teach them to be activists dammit!!!

[banana republican]

110. I'm still here folks. I havn't forgotten a graduate of Chicago '68

[jbane]

113. uh....no. Now can we get back to 2005?

[Roland99]

118. Read up on some Noam Chomsky

I've been reading a bit of Chomsky lately and he's really hit it on the head.

The anti-war, anti-imperialistic movement needs to be organized and move beyond being treated by the media as zealots and anarchists.

Time to pull the shadow gov't moves as Gingrichians did in the early 90s. Get men and women of prestige in the media and get the word out that it's ok to criticize the government and stop sending our kids to die for the neocon fantasy.

I'd love to see Soros startup the Liberal News Channel. ;)

[Jackie97]

119. Yeah, I miss some of them.

But since I wasn't around for them, I'm a little fed up with hearing about how their way was the right way and how we're phony progressives.

One thing I have liked about Bush literally trying to turn back the clock is that it gives younger progressives of 2005 a chance to do it *their* way.

I hate to say it, but some of the stuff done in the 1960s wouldn't work now because the other side has come up with ways to better counter it. I do think we could learn more from some of them though. Black Panthers showed that they cared about others by helping the poor get food. I don't hear of activist groups doing that today.

Speaking of the black panthers, can somebody please help me with the defense against their supposedly being murderers and junk? People make it sound like they were just killing anybody that wasn't like them. If I recall my research correctly, they most of the time got violent with those who were violent toward them. Sorry folks, but if the cops are trying to beat up a black person for being black, then I think that black person has a right to fight back.