The Year When Everything Changed

I used to refer to 1968 as the Year When Everything Changed. Then 2008 came along.
I imagine that in eras hence, historians will compare the years in terms of marking major upheavals in American history.
Forty years ago, the country was torn apart over the Viet Nam War, and the struggle over civil rights. The year brought the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., then Bobby Kennedy; the riots in Americans cities; the amazing psycho-drama madness of the Chicago Democratic National Convention that was played out on television. That 1968 event was so spooky that the Silent Majority voted the refurbished demagogue Nixon into office. His minions would rise another day to assist George W. Bush down the Rose Garden path of our destruction.
Of course I am biased on this point -- as I am biased on at least another. The popular music of the 60s was far more interesting than it is now. For those of us who were teenagers at the time, the music gave some us a way to participate, if we didn't feel like breaking windows or occupying a dean's office or getting our heads broken by a cop's baton. We'd smoke the obligatory marijuana, plug in our guitars, and get gigs for our band. I loved what was called "protest music." There was much more music and movies than politics in my young life. As I recall, no one was ever quiet. Maybe just an occasional, tender "Om," as prescribed by Allen Ginsberg. The gentle folkies had become rockers long before 1968. The volume and the violence had been turned up. Just for having a rock n' roll band, and singing "protest songs," I was hanged in effigy from my high school flag pole by members of the football team. Kid you not. This was over the Viet Nam War. It's quite an honor, I suppose, in retrospect. I can say that because I escaped with my life. There were protests everywhere -- and they had become brutal. In Paris, it was called "Days of Rage." In Czechoslovakia, it was "Prague Spring." In the U.S. there was rage over the war, racial inequality, police brutality, the conditions in Appalachia. But, believe me, no one was outraged about the condition of the stock market.
That was before America had absorbed its obsession with money.
This year, this country is at war on two fronts, we have some serious enemies to deal with, a new, young American leader has emerged, and the economy is collapsing. One thing is clear: nothing will be the same after 2008 either.
It's Another Year That Everything Changed.
To paraphrase Gavin Newsom, these changes will come "whether we like it or not!"
I often wondered what it was like for my parents to endure the really hard times -- the Great Depression, the Second World War, what it was like to ride the whirlwind. Their hard times certainly made my good times possible. I've had plenty of good times, many of us have enjoyed remarkably good times in these United States.
And even if the good times are over for a while, we can always figure out how to make some good times possible for the next group of kids who are coming along.
They'll have their own years that change everything, I hope, whether they like it or not. There will be plenty of things to not like. My advice to these young persons? If you don't want to make love, make noise.

Bruce Bellingham is a columnist fo the SF Northside, and author of Bellingham by the Bay. Talk to him sometime at bruce@northsidesf.com


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