Don, and others. It was not just the state that repressed us. We also offended people in deep and harmful ways, trashed the way they lived, the way they dressed, what they listened to, how they worked. And they rose up angry and, also (and this was my major point) got organized. And the backlash, which was organized into politics, has shaped the past thirty years. Social change always creates a backlash. Civil rights, women's liberation, gay rights, etc. were issues of justice that were bound to upset people in very personal ways. A backlash was inevitable. We (because we were young) rubbed it in, however, and made it worse. We wanted respect, but we had no respect for "straight" people. It's that dynamic that we (especially the younger generation) has to learn from. One of key organizing ideas that came out of SNCC and early grassroots organizing was that you have to recognize where people are coming from and educate and organize them from where they're at. Not everyone gets tolerance and a love of justice with their mother's milk (or their father's bottle). Marty At 08:19 PM 10/3/2000 -0700, Don wrote: >Well put posting Ted! Much more detailed than my simplistic emotional >description. We scared the hell out of people who had something to lose, >whatever branch of the elite they came from. Those elites directed the >media at are largest warts, and as we all know, we had plenty; and they >rolled out the tanks. snip snisp snip Marty Jezer * 22 Prospect Street * Brattleboro, Vermont 05301 * P/F [802] 257-5644 Check out my web page: http://www.sover.net/~mjez Read my commentary on Richard Nixon's Treason <http://www.tompaine.com/history/2000/09/15/index.html> To subscribe to my Friday commentary, simply request to be put on my mailing list. <mjez@sover.net> It's free!
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : 10/04/00 EDT