For Anyone who was a Teen/Adult in the 60s

In the 60’s, the need for police and the justice system was taken for granted by almost everyone. There were no responsible government leaders supporting violent riots. Violent criminals stopped by the police were not treated as heroes.

הנותן תשועה למלכים……is printed in Russian based siddurim and then rolled over to America. They referenced the Tsar . So it was before communism. I never saw a siddur where the Bolsheviks or Mensheviks were blessed. The Hungarian siddurim did not have the prayer. Phillipp Birnbaum who was from Wilmington Delaware printed it in his Siddur. That is where Joe Biden hails from. more later

I wasnt alive then but I think that when Nixon won the election in the fall everyone realized that it was all hype and that America at large including the youth was not with the protestors. We’re all waiting to see if the same thing will happen this fall.

The madness of the 60s slowed down as:
Civil Rights laws started to be enforced
Public School integration (busing) went into effect
Housing discrimination laws were written and enforced
Redlining by banks was stopped
Equal opportunity protection in hiring and college admissions
ERA became part of some state Constitutions (including NY and CT)
Voting age and national drinking age lowered to 18
The Viet Nam War ended in the mid 70s and minorities ceased to be conscripted and used as cannon fodder, while the wealthy such as President Bone Spurs could buy their way out by paying a friendly doctor.

Outside NYC, white flight brought Jews to the suburbs. Unlike the 1920s and 30s, now their money was welcome by home sellers

The protests of the 60s and 70s were not anti-government as they are now. By and large they were anti-war/draft, pro civil and equal rights for females, pro-abortion and birth control. These laws changed and the country moved on. Now the media exposes every bad action of a cop and the people react. Far different than when there was 15 minutes of national news on TV at 7PM. The first anti-Viet Nam War demonstration I attended in New Haven was largely white middle class people who were horrified by the body bags and nightly death toll being shown on the supper hour news,
There was no general fear that the USA would not continue. Now there are calls to remove the President and his cronies by force. I don;t believe it will occur. I think he will be removed at the ballot box.

Americans (and many in the world elsewhere) have been feeling that the “end is near” since at least the 1960s. You see it in literature, pop culture, etc. Messianic movements are strong in all religions, The cure to the feeling how awful it is, is to realize how good it is. How people today are better fed (the leading food issue is obesity, it used to be starvation), healthier (even with Covid19, the death rate is lower now than in the mid-20th century – back then no one would have suggested lockdowns to deal with Covid19), and more secure (there hasn’t been a world war in over 75 years – the last city to be destroyed in any sort of warfare was Hiroshima, or at worse some (then) small cities in Korea ). Ignorance of the past leads to not realizing how well off we are.

Dear Akuperma,

“the last city to be destroyed in any sort of warfare was Hiroshima” Vukovar? Aleppo??

…

Dear Health,
If you were around in the sixties, you may not be aware that encyclopedias are available online. From Wikipedia (Kent State shootings):
The fatal shootings triggered immediate and massive outrage on campuses around the country. More than 4 million students participated in organized walk-outs at hundreds of universities, colleges and high schools, the largest such strike in the history of the United States. The student strike of 1970 further affected public opinion at an already socially contentious time over the role of the United States in the Vietnam War.
But if you were around in the sixties, you should have known this.

@nOmesorah

@Health
I was a teen in the 1960s, I participated in the race protest during the Black Panthers Trial in New Haven n 1970
I was profoundly affected by the Kent State Massacre by the Ohio National Guard. That Jewish kid lying dead in the street with the young lady kneeling over him (that won a Pulitzer Prize) was my 3rd Cousin Jeffrey Miller. No you can;t identify me from this because the connections wre all on mothers’ sides for several generations.

That said: There were MANY Race Riots in the USA in the 1970s, to name only a few:
Asbury Park, NJ Race Riots July, 1970
Camden, NY Race Riots 1971
Escambia HS Riots Pensacola, FL 1972-1976
Boston, MA Busing Race Riots throughout the year 1974
Boston Busing Riot April 1976
Humboldt Park, Chicago June 1976

And these don;t include riots such as Attica Prison Sept 1971 that was very much a race riot as well as a prison uprising.

@Health
The OP never mentions the killing of MLK in 1968
There were Race Riots in the 1960s that predated this, such as Watts (LA) 1965.
Race riots didn’t end in 1969.

@Health

NO>>>>>>>>>>>>>>it is NOT obvious that the OP was specifically talking about Race Riots that followed the assassination of MLK. In fact the OP NEVER used the term Race Riots. He used the term UNREST.

I remember the Watts Riots (saw coverage in LOOK, Life and Time magazines) I attended my first anti-Viet Nam War protest in 1967.

I was at The 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago and experienced the terror of the Riots…Thank you Mayor Daley. Heroes of the Chicago Eight included Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, Bobby Seale (also tried in New Haven 1970 Black Panthers).

So, what may be obvious to you is not to me. I had far more political exposure in the 60s than you did (so it appears).

@Anomymous
I have no idea what you are talking about…………………
I never mentioned Bush or Draft Dodging or teacher deferments from the draft.

The major reason I remember campus takeovers or demonstrations was to:
A. Get rid of ROTC and/or military Recruitment on campus
B. Stop research that aided the munitions/chemical industry
C. Protest the draft when IIS deferments ended

BTW>>>I wasn’t going if my number was called. I would have left the USA

CT, ROTC had a right to be on campus, as did chemical companies and other job recruiters you happened to disapprove of. You didn’t want to associate with them? Fine, but don’t prevent others.
I apparently thought you were talking about President Bush, who joined the Air National Guard to avoid Vietnam, or you could be talking about Trump. My point was, which you avoided, was they weren’t alone. Many people finagled their way out of the draft, by buying phony divinity deferments, using connections to get teaching jobs and, yes, getting doctors to phony medical records ( the star point guard of a Brooklyn yeshiva high school basketball team got a medical deferment ).
The terror of the riots were djust as much a result of the protesters. They created the mindset of the police by announcing their plans to disrupt the conventionby whatever means, including violence, which induced the response by Daley. Then , as now, students were accustomed to disrupting colleges, occupying offices, making demands and causing destruction with little or no repercussions. They expected the same in Chicago but found out differently.

@Anonymous

ROTC has/had no right to be on any private campus, they had to seek permission from the institution.
I never prevented anyone from associating with them or job recruiters. I mentioned reason for campus dissent and disruption.

I didn’t discuss draft dodgers. You are accusing me of things that aren’t in my posts.

As for that piece of garbage Daley. He not only ordered havoc on the streets, but prevented free movement of delegates and registered attendees (such as myself..too young to be a delegate) within the convention hall.

Go attack someone who has actually posted what you pretend I did, I’m through wasting time ansering your false accusations.

The unrest didn’t start with Kent State. In 1967 American’s were getting tired of the endless war in VN. The Spring Offensive in ’67 put a half million people on the streets of NYC to protest the war. Equal numbers were participating in DC, Chicago, Phila and across the country. The NYC demonstration birthed the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. These men and women who served organized their fellow vets where ever they could be found, the unemployment lines, college campuses. They formed coalitions with other organizations like the Panthers and Quakers, progressive Jews and Catholic Workers. Little coverage was given to them when thousands turned up in sleepy little Glassboro NJ to protest the summit between LBJ and Kosygin. We have to consider just how angry these returning vets were. Some did two tours before their 21st birthday and returned to the states to face unemployment or underemployment. Jim Crow was alive and well at VFWs across America.

And your point is?

“The only American women in Vietnam during the war were nurses.”

False. Of the 11,000 women who served in the U.S. armed forces in Vietnam, most were military nurses but over 1,000 of them served as doctors, air traffic controllers, intelligence officers, clerks and in other positions. Many more served on behalf of the Red Cross, USO and other civilian organizations.

@DovidBT
Yes I remember that chant, along with H*ll No, I won’t go and burning draft cards.
My favorite anti-war lapel button that I wore for years read:
“War is good business, invest your son”

CTLawyer -“I attended my first anti-Viet Nam War protest in 1967.”

Now that you’re talking about Nam, which party, in the US, was in control during the war?
In other words, who ordered Combat troops to Nam?

AZ -“Why not start a seperate thread to address your concerns?”

I looked at your profile – you’re only here 5 years.
To answer your question – I could do that, but it’s commonplace to change from the Main Topic.
So you Should NOT Have said this – “Heath, I’m continually amazed about your inability to follow a convo.”

‘I looked at your profile – you’re only here 5 years.’ Ok when my husband registered we both read the rules. Nothing was stated about a minimum number of years membership before offering an opinion. My observation regarding your posting perhaps wasn’t sensitively worded. In the years I’ve been reading your posts I’ve observed you changing the subject.

Edited

Dear Health,
He thoroughly answered your question. If you want a specific statement, you can post it yourself. But, I can give you a statement. The FBI was in charge then.

nOmesorah -“He thoroughly answered your question”

He did NOT!
Here it is again -“who ordered The First Combat troops to Nam?!?”
Do you have a problem with English Comprehension?

Dear Health,
Watts, just one city of many. Besides for being the symbol of the race riots of sixties. I do not know any cities that the National Guard stopped the riots ‘real quick’. If i find one or three, I will let you know.