This is not the America I grew up in.

[MineralMan]

The Civil Rights Act is in force, and we now have a black President.
Rape prosecutions don't blame the victim as they did in the 1950s.
There are black families living in my home town - not allowed when I was a kid.
Schoolchildren are not diving under desks in A-Bomb drills.
Polio has been eradicated from the US.
Smallpox has been eradicated from the world.
There are effective treatments for many cancers.
Cardiac bypass surgery and stents are extending many lives.
Bad knees and hips can now be replaced.
There is same-sex marriage in a number of jurisdictions.
Laws against sex between same-sex couples are gone.
Women have access to contraception.
Women have access to abortions.
Physical abuse of spouses is punished by law.
I had access only to the books in my small-town library.
18-year-old citizens can vote.
McCarthyism is over.
Etc.


Nope. It's sure not the America I grew up in. Thank goodness.

[readmoreoften]

1. Wow. You're frickin old.

[lpbk2713]

3. "Old" isn't so bad when you consider the alternative.

:eyes:

[shanti]

52. heh!

:thumbsup:

[MineralMan]

4. I am, but I'm 20 years younger than my parents, who are now

still alive and 86 years old. Mom has two new knees, and Dad has a quadruple bypass and a new hip. They're doing OK. Both would have been dead at their age when I was growing up.

[readmoreoften]

15. I was just being cheeky. I'm not exactly a spring chicken myself.

:)

[Kahuna]

28. ...

:D

[CreekDog]

30. as evidenced by your use of "frickin"

:rofl:

[Kahuna]

12. You'll be lucky if you live long enough to be taunted in

such a manner. It isn't guaranteed you know.

[readmoreoften]

14. Oh I know I'll be lucky. There won't be any social security to help me.

Or jobs to support me, most likely. That will be difficult. My retirement funds will also likely be destroyed by austerity measures. I'm well aware.

[Foo Fighter]

59. Don't forget Medicare.

That will also probably be a program of by-gone days once you're of age to qualify (depending on your current age, of course).

[Hawkowl]

64. nt

[DainBramaged]

2. The America you grew up in was dominated by Republicans and still is

:eyes:

[MineralMan]

5. And yet, all those things have changed, have they not?

Interesting, isn't it? Thanks for reading my post.

[DainBramaged]

8. When the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are over, and our GLBT friends have equal rights to ours

get back to me. Jesus we didn't have lithium-ion batteries or computers in 1900, should I be happy that a century later this isn't the world my great grand parents grew up in?


Never mind........not worth it.

[MineralMan]

9. Thanks, but, you know, I think I'll still celebrate the progress that

has been made, if you don't mind. That list is short. Much more could be added to it.

Do we still have more progress to attain? Of course. We always will.

[CreekDog]

32. are you celebrating Americans getting their bodies x-rayed to travel on airplanes?

progress forward doesn't preclude backsliding.

[MineralMan]

34. No, I'm forgetting nothing. I'm posting a bunch of the progress

that's been made, and the list could be much longer. You can either recognize the progress or you can deny it. You're free to post whatever you want. I posted what I wanted to post. Did you find any inaccuracies in my OP?

[elehhhhna]

42. Republicans invented the atrificial hip? IDNKT.

[Creative]

16. Actually, America has been pretty much dominated by Democrats since the '30s

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=history+of+democratic+control+of+congress#q=history+of+democratic+control+of+congress&hl=en&sa=X&tbs=tl:1,tll:2000,tlh:2019&prmd=iv&psj=1&ei=gAgATbDRBcKC8gb4vdDiBw&ved=0CGsQyQEoBw&fp=28e0029ce02f28bf

[Drale]

6. Unfortunately this is the America I grew up in

Reagan was President when I was born, then there was Bush 1, there was a bright spot between the 2 Bush's, but the rGreg Nortonepublicans tried they're damnedest to destroy that.

[MineralMan]

7. Good! You got the advantage of all that stuff. I had two

kindergarten friends who died of polio. I never saw a black person until I was 12 years old. All those things have improved, through the hard work of many people. When I was 19 years old, I stood in a crowd in Montgomery, Alabama and heard Martin Luther King speak, after driving there from California. It was a life-changing event for me. There has been much progress since I was growing up. Much progress.

[delightfulstar]

10. I was born after Ford "inherited" office...

I remember seeing a lot of the clash between what was and what would become. My dad was a Depression kid, and a polio survivor. Oh, the stories he had to tell, and I remember so many of them vividly. He worked in the South quite a bit when the civil rights movement was really ramping up. He remembered Pearl Harbor, Kennedy, soup kitchens, segregation, ERA, you name it. It's a different place now than it used to be. I have mixed feelings...it's so refreshing to see some of the ongoing social change and diversity and scientific advancement, but at the same time, I miss the civility of the past - people showing common respect to one another, people not airing all of their dirty laundry, people wearing something other than pajamas and flip-flops out in public, people going to local places instead of corporate behemoths, etc. etc. But as far as how far we've come in opening our minds as a society, that's one thing I wouldn't give up. I just wish it were balanced with a little decency thrown in for good measure. :)

[MineralMan]

36. The civility you mention was reserved pretty much only for

white people who were in the same circles. If you were black, hispanic, or asian, there was no civility to be had. I remember that very well. There was no respect shown to the "outsiders" at all.

[Kahuna]

11. I've got to give you some love on this one...

:loveya: :applause:

[MineralMan]

35. Much appreciated, too.

[defendandprotect]

13. But note that the elites would like to overturn all of the advaces ...

and they're largely succeeding --

Even child labor is making a comeback!

[Vinca]

17. On the other hand, back in the good old days, healthcare was available

to the average person and the policies covered everything. There were also factories and jobs galore and the small town library could afford to buy books. It was a time when a parent could afford to stay home and see to the kids. It would be nice to recapture some of what we had.

[MineralMan]

37. Policies? In the America of my childhood, there was no health

insurance at all. That didn't begin until later on. The poor families in my hometown had no healthcare at all. If they had a serious illness, they died. You had to pay cash up front at the hospital if you were poor. I remember.

And the small town library. Yes, they had books, but not any books that were at all controversial. Those were not there. There were many, many books I wanted to read that were unaccessible to me. It was not until I went to college in 1963 that I had access to a full range of books.

My mother worked when we were kids. At the school cafeteria, for about $1/hr. I made more than that ($1.25/hr) at 16, on my first day of work delivering milk while in high school. I was male. My parents could NOT afford to raise their three children without my mother working, and for a pittance at that.

You see, what you think was the situation was not the situation at all. I was born in 1945, and graduated from high school in 1963.

[csziggy]

50. Healthcare was not all that available

Mom either brought home vaccines from from her job as a RN or took us to the county health department. When I had an accident, Mom delayed taking me to see if my arm was broken because she was worried about how to pay for the X-rays but too proud to ask the doctor for help in making payments.

The small town I grew up in had three cyclical industries - phosphate mining, cattle and citrus. In bad years when the low cycles of all the industries coincided half the work force in the town could be unemployed. Dad went from making really good money some years to no income at all in others. Mom had to work to help support the family and to save up for the bad years. Some years the only "new" clothes we got were from Goodwill because we could not even afford to buy cloth to make our own.

As someone said, small town libraries pretty much censored their collections and some subjects were simply not available to their patrons. Music was censored, too - a lot of the great music of the 60s was completely unavailable to me until I moved to a completely different town. Some I have only discovered in the last ten years as it became available on the internet. News was censored, too, and few alternative sources were available to question the dominant narrative.

It would be nice if people would quit 'remembering' a past that never really existed.

[Forkboy]

18. Thanks to people who stood for something, yes, advances have been made.

Thank goodness indeed that we have people with the guts to stand for what's right despite the indifference and/or hostility of those grateful for the change they themselves did little to bring about, and in the face of those who would claim they made a difference while hounding those truly interested in it.

[Bonobo]

22. Zing! You knocked THAT one out of the ballpark.

It is ironic that some posters greet the kind of change that was only made possible by the very type of action and loyalty to principles that they refuse to support.

[Foo Fighter]

60. Loyalty to principles.

Yes indeed. That is something that is sorely lacking these days and is what is needed to bring about change.

[ddeclue]

19. No we have the patriot act extraordinary rendition torture undeclared wars giantanamo naked body

Scanners at the airport no fly lists a gutted social safety net no pensions no jobs a lying media conccentration of 99% of the wealth in the hands of about 5% of the population, unaFfordable healthcare and a President with no spine.

[political_Dem]

20. K and R. We've come a long way.

[bvar22]

21. OTOH, In the America I grew up in:

A Blue Collar worker :

*could get a job with security and benefits

*could provide good Health Care to his family

*buy a NEW car every couple of years

*take a REAL vacation with family every year

*buy and pay off a good home in the suburbs

*could retire in comfort and dignity

Anyone could attend a State College and graduate DEBT FREE if he/she was willing to work a part time job.

YES. America has really changed.

BTW:
We could have ALL those things listed above
IF the Working Class had a political party that represented them....
A Party like THIS:

"In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

*The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

*The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

*The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

*The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

*The right of every family to a decent home;

*The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

*The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

*The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

Americas own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens.

For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world."---FDR

"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans. I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."---Paul Wellstone


"By their works, you will know them."

[leftstreet]

23. [phone]

[Brickbat]

24. One would think it's possible to incorporate the progress we've made over the past 80 years with the

good things that should have lasted but haven't. Apparently this country is a zero-sum game.

[Bonobo]

26. +3 - I bet your post will get more recs than the OP.

I was going to reply similarly, but certain OPs just are not worth my time.

[smokey nj]

31. +4

[Hassin Bin Sober]

41. +1

[woo me with science]

47. [phone]

And these things, access to health care and housing and living wages without crippling debt, are the things that make us free.

[dflprincess]

53. Bvar - you should post that as an OP every single day n/t

:applause:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

55. + infinity

[ProSense]

62. When was this?

Long-Term Economic Pain

A lot of people have never known that reality.

[demodonkey]

25. Yes, but........

There are effective treatments for many cancers.
Cardiac bypass surgery and stents are extending many lives.
Bad knees and hips can now be replaced.

None of these can be had unless one is independently wealthy or one has HEALTH INSURANCE, which nearly 50 million Americans lack.

We should have had single-payer then and now.

[MineralMan]

44. Oh, there was single payer then. It was Dad. He earned the money,

so he paid. That was the payer. You really aren't seeing what I'm talking about, are you?

[demodonkey]

61. Yeah, I've been told a family member had major surgery back in, like, 1943.

The operation and about ten days in the hospital cost her something like $150 bucks, and on her modest salary she could afford to pay it.

$150 now will buy you, maybe if you're lucky, perhaps a couple of pills in a hospital... get a major surgery and spend ten days in the hospital today and unless you are in the upper few percent of earners or insurance will cover it for you, you'll basically lose everything and/or go bankrupt.

WE NEED REAL SINGLE PAYER. Not Dad.

[dflprincess]

51. And having health insurance doesn't guarantee you can afford any of these treatments

Single payer is the only answer - LBJ actually saw Medicare as being the first step in that direction. He expected that by now we all would have access to care - just like in civilized countreis.

[lunatica]

27. imagine how great it'll be if you live another 50 years!

Really? Do you think this country is OK right now?

[MineralMan]

39. The work of progress is never finished. It is the work in the past

that has brought us to where we are. The work people are doing now will continue the progress. There are setbacks. There are always setbacks, and always will be. That didn't stop the civil rights workers in the 1960s. It should not stop us now. We can succeed, but only if we continue to work toward our goals.

Everything I mentioned took decades to put in place. That's the pace change takes. It's a long haul, and today's disappointment is just one thing on the path.

You don't know me at all, but I was one of the ones working for change in the 1960s right up until today. I've watched it happen. You can watch it happen in your lifetime, too. If you're working on it, you'll look back, long after I'm dead, and see the results of what you're doing today.

I have no idea why there is any negativity toward what I posted. Those things happened because people made them happen. That should be an encouragement to every one of us.

[EFerrari]

29. McCarthyism is over. It's called Assanging now.

[dflprincess]

54. And I heard on Keith or Rachel show last night that the Republicans

are talking about reviving HUAC. No doubt with the blessing of "new Democrats".

:banghead:

[CreekDog]

33. yes, we've made a lot of progress

and now it's time to stop. :eyes:

[MineralMan]

38. Did I say that, or even suggest it?

No, we need to keep fighting for change. It's people who did that that are the reason for the progress we have made. We can continue to progress, but we do have to work for it, just like the many people who worked for the changes I listed. It's far from easy.

There has been progress. If we continue to work, there will be more. It may not happen this year, but it will happen, if we keep working.

[CreekDog]

40. no you didn't say that

it was just a joke.

a sad one based on political reality of recent years, but nevertheless a joke.

[MineralMan]

43. I didn't see the humor in it. You've buried it under an unrecommendation.

I didn't find it at all amusing. There is a solution, but it's not on DU. It's out there working your ass off where it matters. That's how the stuff I listed happened. That's how all progress happens.

[CreekDog]

45. I didn't unrecommend your thread

I'm not sure if that's what you meant --but nevertheless I didn't.

I'm not denying the progress that's been made.

[MineralMan]

46. Well, thanks for that.

Plenty of others did. My goal here was to point out that progress has been made, and will continue to be made, despite setbacks. There are always setbacks. Dedicated people are working to continue the progress. Trying to minimize their efforts does not help, though, and that's what your little green-faced smiley said to me.

No, it doesn't stop. I'm still working on it, as are many thousands of others, just as we did back in the 1960s. It's slow. It's hard. It's worth it. Good luck to you.

[dflprincess]

56. "Setbacks"?

One step forward and two back for the last 30 years.

And the DLC wing of the party gets as much blame for that as the Republicans.

[Bluenorthwest]

48. I would argue that McCarthyism morphed and lives on

But I also often make the argument that things can and do progress, and your list is a great one for making the point I strive to make, which is that those advances came about for the most part due to fierce activism against the status quo on the part of liberals, women, minority groups who won their own damn advances, thanks. None of it came from making compromise, none of it sprang from the right wing. It all came from nerds and freaks and unruly people of courage.
I also never make such a point without noting that the America I grew up in did not rest upon laurels nor sleep quiet dreaming of their past but always pointed forward to that which we still had left to do. It is thus important to remember that there is absolutely no Federal recognition of same sex marriage, and in fact, in much of the country it is fully legal to openly discriminate against GLBT people in housing, in employment, in any way at all. So sure, we are not what we were, but let's not fluff up our dream pillows too fully and slumber when we should be striving. The past is prologue. If we do not fulfill the promise we become the villains of the piece.
To say that things are in some ways better should never be used as a way of claiming that there is a moment to spare for back patting and self congratulations.

[roamer65]

49. I am reminded of David Bowie and Pat Metheny's song...

"This is not America".

[treestar]

57. K&R

I agree. I hate those silly emails Republicans send around about how we used to have mothers who smoked and drank and did all sorts of now frowned up things and turned out just fine. So stupid.

[DCBob]

58. If the Teapartiers have their way some of these things could change back..

As bad as things are now, they could get alot worse.

[Monique1]

63. Keep your posts coming Mineral Man

you keep my brain working - it needs working at my age.