During the 60's and onward we fought on every front. Now it is up to you to carry on.

[ConsAreLiars]

The future is now in your hands.

But remember this. We fought, and we won significant victories in every arena, and each fight and each victory empowered all of us. We fought for racial justice, we fought to end a war of conquest and to end US support for repressive puppet regimes around the planet. We fought for women's rights and against homophobia. We fought against poverty and all forms of injustice and the poisoning of our environment by chemical toxins and nuclear plants and for nuclear disarmament. Many more arenas -- too many to list.

We fought for justice. We fought for peace. We fought for the greater good.

We created our own tools and institutions and organizations. We are still here and still fighting, but it is now you who are taking the lead. We built food coops, bookstores, radio and print operations, community organizations, a tendency in the unions, civil and women's rights organizations and the foundations of the gay rights movement. Even a few of the rich joined in to set up foundations to provide funding. We created theater, music, art, even a bit of TV when there were a few cracks in that system and a whole cultural attitude.

And we built what we did based on a long history of the people's movements. You can read about that legacy and learn from it. We did, and you will need to do so also.

A part of what we accomplished was a result of exposing the truth of what was happening to us and to our fellow humans around the world. But the enduring value, limited as it was, was in creating organizations and such that have lasted and still exist as an alternative form of society. A mere seed, but one that holds the hope for a better future.

Your turn. Many of the tools we created are still here. Give them your power and strengthen them, or create better ones. It is never enough to gripe and moan. Do what you can. Do anything. Every act, every front on which the fight for a more humane world is waged and to which you contribute is a step toward survival for the next generation.

We did what we could. We made a lot of progress. But the Monster is now more vicious (not stronger) than ever before. Your turn. Build life-affirming organizations. Help one another. Do what you can. Act in whatever arena you can. And kill the Monster before it kills the whole planet.

[lligrd]

1. Exactly, Where The Hell Is This Generation?

I sure don't see enough of them out protesting.

[ConsAreLiars]

2. I think this generation is quite involved.

Protesting is not the only venue for activism. Protesting is the least effective action. Building something better is what lasts. My post was intended more as word of encouragement for "our kids" to continue to fight in whatever way they can. My two kids are both very active, in very different ways, in building a better world. They are both likely to join a street march, but that would be the least of their contributions. I assume that this is also true for many others. They are working in other ways, and I thank them.

[lligrd]

4. Glad Your Kids Are Involved

and my son has been involved too (even protesting, as ineffective as it may be). But he will be the first to tell you that the majority of the kids today, although sympathetic are not actively doing anything. We live in a liberal arts, college town and I have been really disenchanted by how silent the kids have been. Sorry, I can't extend my ku-du's to them.

I am happy to say that our retired community (another big fraction of our town) has been very actively involved. In fact, they are the loudest and most active members of our community against this war.

[murielm99]

7. My kids are involved, too.

I think it may be because we set a good example for them. I have involved them in some projects for the Democrats in Illinois, and they are willing to support my events and candidates.

I think the younger generation has a different style of involvement than we had.

My youngest has been a caucus leader and active Democrat. She has involved herself in NARAL and Planned Parenthood, as has her sister. We all went to the March for Women's Lives. My youngest is also involved with a foundation to preserve the rain forests in Peru. The foundation works to educate the indigenous people to raise their own standard of living and to preserve their own heritage. She spent some time in Peru last summer. Her employment involves her with promoting the rights of Hispanics in this country.

In addition to being an active Democratic woman, my oldest daughter works actively for GLBT rights and promoting fine arts education.

My son is active in Democratic politics at the precinct level. He also helps an animal shelter, and works to support suicide prevention. (One of his close friends committed suicide after returning from Iraq). He has a very good job for someone his age, and I am surprised at the amount of money and time he is willing to give to his causes.

They have been known to attend marches and protests. But today's media ignores them to a large extent. Our kids are finding other ways to change the world. I wouldn't dismiss them.

[WinkyDink]

31. "Protesting is the least effective action." History would beg to diffa, re:

the MASSIVE demonstrations against the VietNsm Conflict; the Civil Rights marches and sit-ins; or even, to mark the other side, the Miami door-banging of Republicans that shut down the vote-recount in 2000.

E.g., http://library.thinkquest.org/27942/war.htm

[ConsAreLiars]

33. Well, if you think gathering a large crowd, even an enormous one, once or twice a year

is, in itself, effective, you are mistaken. Working every day, in whatever way, is far more powerful, and is what makes those large numbers possible. The street actions are important, and, in my view, the more intense the level of civil disobedience the better, but they are more a sign than a source of change.

[EST]

3. If you'd like a fascinating partial answer to your thoughtful question,

I would direct your attention to a NY Times magazine article that Skinner brought to the forum, recently. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=2157069

It illustrates an inspiring set of examples of just where some of the members of the up-and-coming generation are and makes a good case for a reason to affirm hope in the world.
If you've already read it, forgive my intrusion, please.

[lligrd]

5. Thanks, I Had Missed That One

Maybe there is hope.

[lvx35]

6. This generation marched in the largest anti-war protest in history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_15,_2003_anti-war_protest

It got fleeting coverage on the news.

What's happening now isn't like the 60s. A freind of mine was on the train after 9/11. A man with an AK-47 was shouting about freedom, engaged in a shootout with police outside at a stop. A bullet from his rifle ripped through the train car right in front of her, before police shot and killed the man. The story just disappeared, it was never in the news, never heard of again. Just silence.

The moral of the story is that a lot of things are happening that just disappear, never get mentioned. We are in a country where two of the top selling records of the times, by Dixie Chicks and Springsteen, simply aren't heard on the radio:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/30/clear-channel-is-attempting-to-silence-bruce-springsteen/
and all of the news is controlled by like three companies.

[MrSlayer]

8. Playing PS3, fucking their teachers and texting in their vote for newest garbage pop star.

Their lives aren't really effected, they aren't going to be drafted and killed for the war profiteers and they don't give a damn about politics. Being brought up under this media, without real guidence, leaves each generation more and more apathetic and ignorant to the issues that determine their future. They don't have time to worry about who the next President will be because they need to 5-star "Raining Blood" on Guitar Hero III. And that's just how the powers that be want it.

[lligrd]

9. Another Realist

OK, the teacher thing may be over the top, but the rest si how I see it.

[murielm99]

11. It's not up to the media.

And giving them guidance is our job, as parents and elders.

My children were aware of politics and world events at a very young age. It is what we talked about at home. They are well aware that the media is garbage.

The kids are using technology for entertainment, but they are also using it to keep themselves and others informed. Do you think that all the intelligent political bloggers are baby boomers?

Every generation finds its own voice. Every generation has its share of ignorant fools, too. I know people my age who watch Fox News, who think * is doing a great job, whose only exercise is shopping at the mall.

[conscious evolution]

13. And giving them guidance is our job, as parents and elders.

Best reply yet.
Without a doubt it is up to us to show them the way.
All they need is someone to show them the way.

[zanne]

10. ConsAreLiars...

I LOVE YOU! Most of the people who denigrate out generation are just young College Republicans who grew up with a score to settle. People who refer to our generation and our movement as "hippies" don't know what they're talking about. (Only the popular media called us "hippies"; we called ourselves "freaks", and in
a good way. We weren't mean to each other as some young people are now. You didn't have to worry about being "different"; different was cool. We shared what we had and took when we had to. I'm tired of people trying to rewrite history and paint us as a bunch of slackers. We weren't.

[ConsAreLiars]

20. Yes, exactly. The demeaning labels and attempts to put the whole diverse movement into some small

box and then ridicule the stereotype they invented were a part of the counteroffensive by corporate Amerika. Anyone who gives any credibility to that version of history has been played for a fool. The simple stereotype reached even to India where I was traveling (not touristing) in 1970. One man I encountered asked me "Are you Happy or are you Sadhu?" Took me a moment to parse, but I had to confess to being neither.

and, of course: :pals:

[tomg]

12. My college students did not know

the following terms:

1) Rendition
2) Waterboarding
3) Posse Comitatus
4) Habeas Corpus
5) Wiretapping ( well, what is going on and to whom)

None knew anything about the Patriot Act ( as in one thing it did.)

I am not taking about a few. I am talking about 45 out of fifty.

the are - for the most part - against Bush - only because it is in the air. They know nothing of what we have done in Iraq and Afghanistan, although 99% oppose the war. For those on the right, 9-11 is being reduced to a kind of slogan, a cross between "Remember the Maine" and "Just Do It."

This came about because I was teaching Antigone to my first year College Students. In order to get them to see what she did in burying her brother (treason) and the rock and a hard place Creon is in (bad law/ good intent), I raised some of these issues. Zero, zilch, zip, nada, blank stares. Incidentally, this was in a class that had a great discussion going on at the time.

What is of concern is that I have taught Antigone for the past four years. In all cases, due to the nature of this specific class, they tend to be first-year English majors. So as English majors, they tend to be better read and they tend to be Democrats ( as opposed to business and comm majors where there are more conservatives and moderate Republicans). Each year, although technically our students are getting academically better ( I teach, incidentally, at a fairly good, 5,000 student body, 2nd tier private)they are becoming less and less politically aware. The lack of any real sacrifice/ committment/ threat to the immediacy of their lives, I think, is "institutionalizing" the war.

All of these things are, in a sense, the background music, the white noise of their lives. I don't say it to condemn or criticize them ( I really love them and teaching). Nor do I criticize teachers or the ed system ( although I do think No Child has a lot to do with it - which is why no teacher I know pn any level supports it). I think corporatists have figured out pretty much how to have a constant state of low-level, no sacrfice war to further their interests.

edit: typo

[lligrd]

16. I Find Your Post To Be The Most Credulous Of All So Far nt

[Hubert Flottz]

14. Far Out Man!

Boom Boom Boom Boom!

[Perry Logan]

15. Great news: The young voters of today are the most Democratic generation in U.S. history.

[ConsAreLiars]

23. I found the following story, but if you have a link to the original polling data

if would be nice to read. Here's a sentence from: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5212398.html

"Exit polls from recent elections and survey research show the nation's young people are less likely to embrace the Republican Party than any generation since the '60s."

[lligrd]

17. If This Generation Has Found A "New" Way Of Demonstrating

could you please show me what results these new techniques have shown? As far as I can see, corporate America is still buying up everything in sight including the News outlets (and looking toward the Internet) and * is still acting as if he is a dictator.

[zeemike]

18. We won a lot of battles but lost the war

And the die was cast when Reagan was elected.
After Viet Nam was over we just wanted to party and have fun, and that was the symbolic era of disco.
During Regains years he gave the super rich a huge tax cut and they used the moneys to consolidate their power with the corporate structure. and slowly so we would not notice, they changed everything. As an example they bought out CNN from Ted Turner with a hostile takeover of his company and thus controlled the news and what would be talked about on the TV.

And with this incredible power gained by owning their competition, they also bought the government, and now for practical purpose they own it, and can draw on the tax dollars to finance any thing that will keep them in power with our own tax dollar.

How this generation will extract themselves form this neo fascist system is beyond me. I hope they can but at the same time I feel the guilt of my own generation for allowing this to go as far as it has.
If only a bloody revolution can solve it then it should be those of us over 60 in the front lines to die first. Or at least the ones to be arrested and sent to the camps for protesting the situation.

Sorry kids, we didn't intend for you to intend a shit hole to live and die in.

[ConsAreLiars]

19. A kick for the daylight crowd.

And thanks to all have commented. This is not then, and the terrain we now fight on is even more difficult. As a reminder for those who have noted that most of this generation is uninvolved, that was also true then, but a movement was created that has changed the world for the better. Although we didn't "win" the war, just imagine where things would now be if we had done nothing. Ours was just one phase - it began long before that period and it will continue.

(edit to add a few words)

[AuntPatsy]

21. Excellent post, I can only hope it is understood enough to a generation

who seeminly likes thier toys better than their once valued democracy and would they even be aware if and when it is taken away?

[ConsAreLiars]

24. I think (hope/believe) that the "seemingly" in your observations is

apt. What we are shown is often (always?) filtered and altered by those who control the media. But even if generally true, that most of this generation are clueless, that is not so different from our past. Most, nearly all, of my peers in the Vietnam era were not activists. But enough to make a difference, and over time, enough to define an era.

[AuntPatsy]

26. True but back then we were not bogged down with so many gadgets designed to ensure the attention

span of new America is far too limited.

[alittlelark]

22. Our peers have been brainwashed by Idol, CNN, FOX, and misc....

It is sooo disturbing. I talk to ppl in the check out line. Very few are capable of focusing their eyes on anything more that Brittany or superficial politics. They seem 'distracted'.

I can garner interest as an attractive female, but once I start talking about real issues..... 'fade to black'.

[ConsAreLiars]

27. I may be wrong (plenty of precedent) but I wonder if the "fade to black" is just a

"realistic" response - "That is something that I should, but can't, do something about." While trivia is just that. One thing I tried to draw attention to was the building of institutions and organizations and so on, rather than simply the critique. That made it possible to invite people to get involved in some constructive way, and the further education followed along with the participation, as well as being an effective way to counter the corporatist meme that people are essentially powerless.

[alittlelark]

28. That's kinda hard to do when peers (Silicon Valley)

Change the subject with fluttering eyes. This is one of the most liberal areas of the country, yet ppl are still afraid to SPEAK!!!!!

[ConsAreLiars]

29. Yeah, that would be frustrating.

Maybe all you can do in those circumstances is plant a seed. When circumstances change, maybe their bubble will burst and they will remember.

[alittlelark]

30. I have planted so many seeds the cashiers at Trader Joes

joke about my escapades...
Sadly, I feel I have helped few ppl.

[ConsAreLiars]

32. Then you are a modern day Joannie Appleseed.

Scattering seeds as you travel, never knowing which, if any, will take root. But still doing something to serve the greater good. Thank you.

[upi402]

25. hippies were right

see my sig