Going Through These Things More Than Twice – 4

1960- 1970

John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.  He was the best and the brightest as far as the public could see.   He was motivational, and gained the love of the population.

When the Cuban Missile Crisis happened, a lot of people were terrified.  War was in days, if not hours.  The teachers, the Vice Principal said things that made us think committing suicide was wiser than frying in a nuclear war.  

Then, it was over.   Nothing happened.

Many questioned why they had been so scared, why the war had not happened.  They didn’t just give thanks, they investigated.  They read, they discussed.  They didn’t take easy words.

They began to wonder why we were brought to the edge of terror.

In 1963  John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  For many, it was unthinkable, and their world, as they knew it, ended.

Yes, there were the distractions of music, begun by the Beatles, and the use of marijuana and other drugs, which moved people from reality to a silly sense of fun.  But not everyone was distracted, and protests against injustice, against the war in Vietnam exploded.

Those kids on those college campuses, many there because of Open Admissions, because of the decrease in tuition, based on the need to push the best and brightest as far as they could go, did not garner knee bent gratitude, but a refusal to give up their independent thought to carry the sheep mentality.

Lies were exposed, tricks were no longer hidden.  Baby Boomers now in their teens and entering their twenties stood up and shouted.

And this caused a change in society.