The Good Old Days

Anne Laurie at Balloon Juice has been running a book club series discussing Nixonland. This quote reminds me that the 60s weren't really all that good.

On Sunday, April 18, Vietnam Veterans Against the War’s John Kerry appeared on Meet the Press. Their Washington pageant began the next morning, the anniversary of the ‘shot heard ‘round the world’ in 1775. Eleven hundred veterans, mostly in wrinkled fatigues, medals pinned to hippie headbands, marched to Arlington National Cemetary; five Gold Star mothers in the lead; two vets carrying the VVAW banner; then a contigent in wheelchairs and crutches, blind men walking with canes. Two mothers and two veterans approached the Tomb of the Unknowns with a wreath. The great iron gates shut in their faces…

It's easy to forget how violent those times were. Hippies were being punched, for real, not just insulted in the media. Hell, they were being killed. Good to remember I guess when things seem so horrible now. In a way, those days were much worse.

On a semi-related note, Balloon Juice has a new front pager, Sarah Proud and Tall. She claims to be a well-to-do octogenarian living in a upscale nursing home. I'm thinking she's really a very clever, much younger person with a flair for impersonation. But either way, her name dropping posts are biting and hilarious. Check her out.