The 60's, The 90's, and Now

During the Vietnam War, I was in high school -- prime draftable meat, although since I knew I'd be going to college, I wasn't particularly worried about being drafted. Still, I thought the war an abomination -- being waged by a corrupt president for the express purpose of building the coffers of The Man, the military-industrial complex.

Pretty sure I didn't know what the phrase "military-industrial complex" meant (or what "The Man" meant, for that matter). Still, I completely sympathized with the protesters, and considered them at the time to be true patriots. I (mostly) still do, for that matter.Of course, a fair share of them joined the protests simply because it was the thing to do -- young people are nothing if not peer-sheep -- but that doesn't (in my mind) demean the goals or ideals of those who were committed to the movement.

As for me, I didn't participate (much) in the anti-war protests -- I was a little young. I made some posters and put 'em up in the high school; I wore a black armband to school, but that was about it. In fact, some part of me always felt a little sad that I wasn't able to participate. By the time I got to college, the war was long over, Nixon was history, and nobody protested nothin'. I'm sure I would have been a war protester had I been in college earlier....and on some level, a part of me always felt a bit ripped-off that I missed it.

Later, from the perspective of the 90's -- from the perspective of a decade in which I (and most of us) had become The Establishment, with neatly grazed lawns and heavy mortgages and a healthy disdain for modern music -- I wondered how much (if any) difference any of that made. Maybe -- maybe!! -- the social climate fostered by the cynicism and protests ended the war a little earlier, but I'm not so sure about that....and the grand and glorious vision we all had about a new society somehow became smoke and moonbeams. This, also, made me a little sad.

Now, just like the 60's, we're at war again. I, personally, happen to disagree mightily with this war...and I'm not so sure that it's not also being waged to prop up an economy and keep The Man in power. And just like the 60's, people are facing ridicule and hatred, risking careers and relationships to try to bring this war to an end.

But as for me, I do nothing about it.

My point is not about the rightness of the war. My point is about my own social conscience. If, in fact, I believe this war to be wrong, shouldn't I be trying to do something about it? Shouldn't I have the courage to take a stand? If I'm a true "child of the 60's" (whatever the heck that's supposed to mean), shouldn't I be somehow involved in trying to evoke change?

I can't come up with a single good justification for my own inaction...yet I get up, go to work, come home, pull my weeds....