I think we have great work before us. this is interesting that there is
dislike the baby boomers. I think of Tom Brokaw's book The Greatest
Generation. I think that those of us from the 60's can gain the respect of
people in the US. My brother just succeed in stoping his small town from
dumping sewage from treatment plants in fields near a lovely river in his
town. When it came to a vote at town meeting the town voted overwhelminly
against dumping the sewage.For myself those of us who came to Maine in 1971
from Boston(mostly Northeastern Univ. SDS) have made a significant impact on
the area, a positive impact. I mostly taught school in the Belfast ME area
for many years and have gained the respect of many people up here. Now
working on a great community project, working to build a Skatepark in
Belfast.
Back to my first thought about a lot of work before us. I wonder if
there is a renewed commitment to organizing, getting openly political, from
those of us who were active in the 60's and have been "laying low" for these
many years. I am "coming out of the closet." Having experienced an overdose
of terror in the 60's I did crave a "normal life."
I remember saying, "I am a revolutionary" and now must face the reality
that I am certainly a radical, an activist. There are such important issues
before us, universal health care being one of the big ones.
So long for now,
davidel
----- Original Message -----
From: William Mandel <wmmmandel@earthlink.net>
To: <sixties-l@lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2000 10:12 PM
Subject: Re: [sixties-l] Brewing hatred of the baby boomer generation
> As a member of your parents' generation, who was adopted into
> yours for the decade of the 60s and retains very close
> connections with it, I would like to express my agreement with
> your list of things it contributed. Regrettably, I have to
> disagree with your "Never again...." assurances. When you get to
> be my age, you learn that "never" is an exceedingly unsafe
> prediction. When the Korean War was brought to an end in 1953,
> the thought that masses of Americans would again be fighting an
> undeclared war in Asia a dozen years later was unthinkable. It
> happened.
> Vietnam did not end that. Desert Storm, also undeclared, was
> a massive undertaking, brief only because the other side chose to
> try to match the U.S. at what it was strongest in: mechanized
> warfare.
> Women? When I wrote my SOVIET WOMEN (1975, Anchor-Doubleday),
> their position in that country's society, science, culture, the
> mass professions (engineering, medicine), administration of
> justice, administration of education, was far in advance of that
> in any other country. The restoration of capitalism brought the
> reappearance of mass unemployment, and with it both
> discrimination against women and the revival of prostitution,
> which had been statistically non-existence. Can you predict the
> future of the American economy?
> Racial minorities? Think of what happened to Germany's Jews
> under Hitler, in a country where they had advanced to an
> unparalleled degree.
> Companies autocratically controlling employees' lives. I'm
> afraid that reflects a very serious lack of knowledge of the
> status of the American working class right now, never mind what
> will happen when a depression reverses the present shortage of
> labor in some fields.
> Dumping of poisons into the environment? Do you know how few
> of the Superfund sites have actually been cleared up?
> My chief point, however, is to take issue not with Lance's
> list but with the idea that history is predictable. It is not.
> William
> Mandel
> BrentLance@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > Dear Fellow Sixties-L List Members:
> >
> You may find of interest website www.BillMandel.net
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jun 12 2000 - 20:40:00 CUT