It would help to see things from this most interesting of
intergeneration conflicts, since my step mother had marched with
M.L.King, and by the late sixties, I would find things a tad bit
complicated, not being a 'devout pascifist' - that our family would
wind up with folks splattered across the various factions both locally
and globally.
May 16th, 1970 - the day it all blew up.
On that day, my father, who had attended west point, class of 1948,
while wearing his Dress Whites, with full medals, his Combat Infantry
Badge, and the accutremounts of the Military Establishment, as well
as his Air Force Chaplain's Cross, married my step-mother, who had been
the radical activist social worker in watts, and the mini-skirted,
'hippie dippy chic' that had somewhat scandalized the establishment.
The Best man was my uncle barry who had resigned his commission rather
than fly A-1E's in vietnam. Tex, the Minister in attendence, had just been
thrown out of Brasilia as 'personna non grata' since the Junta did not
like his nasty habit of trying to take care of the poor, as was his calling
to the church. The Alter had been decorated by a collection of senior
officers who had raided through eastern new england looking for just the
right sort of blossoms, like the collection of Juvenile Deliquent PeeLots
they still were at heart.
So you will forgive me, that when I look back at the Kaliediscope of
images, it's not really a simple matter for me to differenciate which
were the Hippies in the Strange and Outlandish Costumes, and which were
the really responsible folks. So too, why I was never too sure what it
was I was suppose to be 'rebelling against' - as a part of this whole
sixties 'youth rebellion' movement notion made ever popular in the press.
In like manner I see the segmentation of the 'civil rights movement'
from it's early days as an effort to oblige conformity to constitutional
standards, by means of 'non-violent' protest and legislative activisim,
with the later strands that would be summaried with Huey's simpler maxim:
"A Nigger with a Gun."
as the alternative euphenism for
"Black Power"
Made ever so comical in the history with the open rejection by the NRA
of the Panther's at the Sacramento Rally to prevent the EvilLiberals
from taking away our right to bear arms. { was gun control a civil rights
issue, or was it merely an effort to keep guns out the hands of TheyThem. }
Granted, as I have pointed, out to folks, when the Gun control thing rolls
around, that what I really want is not some Way Too Macho blued 6" barrelled
.357 Dirty Harry Handgun, but what ever the military style shoulder arm
will be, since the reality is that in a 'low intensity warfare' operation,
one's early supply line will be the dead in front of one... A point that
seems to confuse HandGunFans. It also explans why I was a fan of the Ak-47,
since I still hope to God to never have to shoot at folks carrying
5.56mm FMJ ammunition.
So too I see the 'anti-war' movement evolving/devolving, from the simple
'non-violent' roots to the 'weather underground'. { I must confess, that
when word went out that the Oklahoma Bombing had been done by a former
american military person, I had the absurd amusement, that at least he
had done the job correctly, unlike so much of the fumbling in the sixties. }
For a bunch of 'college kids' they really had spent squat all time reading
the literature and becoming familiar with the basics of the trade, proletarian
artform that modern warfare is.
Complicated in part, again, by having the 'special warfare' folks being involved
in training the junta, while at the same time, becoming a collection of
'maoists' of sorts, in their efforts to devlop the means for engaging in
'low intensity warfare' from the hamlet level upwards. While wondering what
was really going on, with some of them winding up in the VVAW.
All of which gets complicated again at the traditional theological level
with the debate over 'just warfare' theory, or whether the church must take
a pacifist stand. Which gets even dirtier when the "sanctity" of the
american flag gets tossed into the mix, and we must add to the debate
the questions of idolatry. Mean while, over in the other corner of this
mental monastery we have the 'literalists' v. the 'liberals' debating whether
or not the Bible actually supports 'integration' or whether there must always
be seperation of the races. Layered over again by whether the Radical Agenda
of the Freedom Riders, and their RedTerroristFellowTravellors, are actually
intent upon mere 'civil rights' or the Main Force Assault on Biblical
Christianity as the prelude to taking the USA Red.
Thank God we're in the Ninties now, and the roles are now merely reversed.
ciao
drieux