I'm about to head to a reunion. Not the school variety, I'm over those. This one is different, and in many ways a bit more significant. It's a big one, as reunions go. 50 years. Just saying that gives me pause. I'm going back to Austin, Texas for the 50th reunion of the VISTA project in South Texas that I was a participant in so many years ago. (anyone interested in reading my memoir can find it here:
http://lifeandtimesofvista.blogspot.com/
VISTA, you might recall was similar to the Peace Corps, only in this country. In 1969, the U.S. was involved in two concurrent wars. The one in Vietnam and the "War on Poverty" right here at home. I chose the local war and fought it with all the conviction and courage I could muster. Volunteers applied, were accepted and went to training and finally were either selected or de-selected and went home or serves in many of the poorest neighborhoods in this country.
That was then. Now, however, I've been thinking about the last 50 years and as you might expect some of the similarities and differences between those days and these current days that seem so troubled. To paraphrase Dickens, they were the best times and the worst times.
Best: The Beatles, Dylan, Donovan, Stones, Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin and Big Brother, The Blues- B.B. King, Albert King, Big Mama Thornton, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy/Junior Wells, and many more...100,000 people in the street, Love-ins, Human be-ins, teach-ins, Moratoriums and Mobilizations, gas @35 cents a gallon, VW bugs, bell bottoms and boots, incense, "grass" VW microbuses, the Black Panther Party, paisley, and placards.
Worst: Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara, the draft, racism, political assassinations- (John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King), Richard Nixon, Kent State, police brutality, the "scoreboard" (the weekly death count from Vietnam presented every Thursday night on the CBS Evening News), the 1968 Democratic National convention in Chicago, George Wallace and Lester Maddox, FBI's cointelpro, Draft cards and literacy tests.
Certainly a very full and rich time. A divided time with highlights of violence, government dishonesty, and a burgeoning generation gap.
Perhaps after getting used to the shock of seeing someone after 5 decades have passed, my old friends and co-workers from VISTA and I will begin the massive task of sorting much of this out. There is much to celebrate, not the least of which is just being here...or being there in Texas where we really believed we could change the world.
http://lifeandtimesofvista.blogspot.com/
VISTA, you might recall was similar to the Peace Corps, only in this country. In 1969, the U.S. was involved in two concurrent wars. The one in Vietnam and the "War on Poverty" right here at home. I chose the local war and fought it with all the conviction and courage I could muster. Volunteers applied, were accepted and went to training and finally were either selected or de-selected and went home or serves in many of the poorest neighborhoods in this country.
That was then. Now, however, I've been thinking about the last 50 years and as you might expect some of the similarities and differences between those days and these current days that seem so troubled. To paraphrase Dickens, they were the best times and the worst times.
Best: The Beatles, Dylan, Donovan, Stones, Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin and Big Brother, The Blues- B.B. King, Albert King, Big Mama Thornton, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy/Junior Wells, and many more...100,000 people in the street, Love-ins, Human be-ins, teach-ins, Moratoriums and Mobilizations, gas @35 cents a gallon, VW bugs, bell bottoms and boots, incense, "grass" VW microbuses, the Black Panther Party, paisley, and placards.
Worst: Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara, the draft, racism, political assassinations- (John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King), Richard Nixon, Kent State, police brutality, the "scoreboard" (the weekly death count from Vietnam presented every Thursday night on the CBS Evening News), the 1968 Democratic National convention in Chicago, George Wallace and Lester Maddox, FBI's cointelpro, Draft cards and literacy tests.
Certainly a very full and rich time. A divided time with highlights of violence, government dishonesty, and a burgeoning generation gap.
Perhaps after getting used to the shock of seeing someone after 5 decades have passed, my old friends and co-workers from VISTA and I will begin the massive task of sorting much of this out. There is much to celebrate, not the least of which is just being here...or being there in Texas where we really believed we could change the world.
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