Did anybody see the "Sixities" PBS special?

[FreedomAngel82]

It was really great and showed the whole sixties. I loved it and really enjoyed it. That whole time frame is just really fascinating to me. I don't know why but I guess it's cause of all that happened. The thing that really got me is how so much is still the same with those we now call "freepers." I remember them showing in the documentary the conservatives at their convention (the year Robert Kennedy ran) and they said the same stuff they say today. :crazy: I was really empowered by all those my age now who were my age then. They really showed me I can make a difference in the government. This documentary also showed me that there is hope for our country. If we can get through all that chaos etc. (which seemed to be way much more than now) we can get through the Bush gang. Oh and if you're wondering they ended with showing the Vietnam vets protesting and Kerry's senate testimony speech and then closing statements from those throughout the documentary interviewed (including Henry Kissinger and Pat Buchanan). If you missed it you can see it again at 4am est. I'm definitley going to tape that. :)

[graywarrior]

1. It was just like I remembered it.

We never thought we'd get through it..but we did.

[CottonBear]

2. And now you are living it again...

I was a child in the 60s but I remember Vietnam, the nightly Cronkite newscasts and the body counts, the moon landing, Watergate, POWs, Nixon resigning, the evacaution of Saigon, Carter being elected...and the horror of Reagan.

Will we ever learn? I am very depressed and unhappy with the current state of the nation.

[murielm99]

4. I was a child of the sixties, too.

I played Phil Ochs for my kids, and told them to listen especially to Cops of the World. It is amazing how we have come back to where we were forty years ago.

I told them that I thought I had lived in interesting times so that they would not have to. The kids will pick up the torch, and we will help them steady it.

[CottonBear]

9. I am so hoping that my nephews and stepdaughter will pick up the torch.

They are so young. They really have no idea what is happening.

My stepdaughter watches CSPAN with me on Saturday mornings when she's here with us. I hope she's learning to listen to the news and question authority.

Your kids sound like they have great parents.

Peace. CB

[FreedomAngel82]

15. Only thing different now

Jon Stewart is our Cronkite. Kinda weird isn't it? This whole thing gave me hope for now.

[CoolOnion]

3. I'm watching it now

To the protesters who demonstrated at the Democratic National Convention, heckled Humphrey, and sat out the 1968 election, I'd just like to say THANKS A WHOLE FUCKING LOT for the mess we're in now.

[watrwefitinfor]

24. You forget that Vietnam was a Democratic War

until Nixon took over. We chased LBJ out. Why would we support his man Humphrey? Humphrey who refused to say one word about the war? I was in a union meeting that Humphrey spoke at. He was so damned phony - so old school politico. We tried and tried to get him to take a stand and he flatly refused. He answered with the same old tired, hypocritical bullshit - can't cut and run, you know. We went to Chicago to try to get the Dems to take a stand. And Democratic Party boss Mayor Daley sicced his Chicago police on us. That was just fine with Humphrey - he never spoke out against what he saw in Chicago. And he never spoke out loud about the war.

And everything that came after was our fault?
Hindsight is perfect, ain't it?

Wat


"Where were you in Chicago? You know I didn't see you there. I didn't see them break your head, or breathe the tear gas air. Where were you in Chicago, when the fight was being fought? Oh where were you in Chicago? Cause I was in Detroit." Phil Ochs.

(Edited cause I can remember 1968 like it was yesterday, but can't remember lyrics for shit.)

[Bridget Burke]

25. Thank the killers of RFK for that....

Unless you believe the Lone Gunman theory...

[ChowChowChow]

5. Everyone should see it.

The references to the way Nixon stalked his opponents and how he slimed them....Rove's IDOL was Nixon...Rover believes that corruption is normal and is ok in politics...you know it goes with the territory...there were striking similarities to what is happening today...some of it is scary and brought tears to my eyes...A MUST SEE!

[2Design]

8. yes - it is history repeating itself only with more evil and crafty

people - they seem to really know how deceive and they are much more paranoid - really caught the last part of it - but it was worth it

[Spike from MN]

21. Bingo. It's almost like the 60's were a "trial run"

for what we're dealing with now. Rove studied the 60's,learned from the mistakes, and is determined not to repeat them. First priority: takeover of the media. After that, everyting is pretty much a cakewalk. Control the media and you control everything. Things that struck me: the violence exhibited by the police. the 60's were before my time though I remember hearing about some of these things but seeing the video footage -- holy shit! The way blacks were treated? Talk about appalling! If I had been there, this whitey would have been marching in lock-step right along with them. And at all the protests, black or white or whatever, it looked like the cops were cracking skulls just for the sheer enjoyment of it. God damn!

Looks like Rove wants to bring all that back but this time with a media blackout. The media had such a big influence on the success of the 60's anti-war movement that he wants to make sure to not repeat that same mistake. After that was accomplished, he went for rigging the vote because once that's done, nothing else really matters.

[2Design]

27. yes - watching the police brutality for the joy of it - shocking

the military and the police really were 'terrorists' then and the spying on everyone - I was shocked when I realized the fbi had a lot of files on kerry - and john lennon - just amazing what our government really is beneath the surface - we are so blind to so much - no wonder people follow lock step -

especially now where people are put in jail without trials and torture is ok'd by WH and congress and military and media

[SeattleGirl]

6. It's on in a few minutes here in west coast land, but

I am watching something else (CSI and Without a Trace -- my escape shows). Anyone know if they are repeating it? I saw the first half of the show last night about protest and music, and that was fabulous.

[2Design]

7. realizing that our elders were willing to go let us die ....

That was some line - the end of it I don't remember exactly - but basicly for a empty cause

That is what needs to be driven home now - that the senior citizens - cheney - runsfeld and * are willing to let our young people die

they felt abandoned - no one cared if they were dying

[Beam Me Up]

16. "Willing to let them die," cleans it up.

They are sending thousands of them to their deaths. Tens of thousands to lives of chronic pain, disfigurement, dismemberment, and years of mental and emotional anguish. Worse, sending them to murder tens of thousands of mostly innocent people, including children.

They aren't merely "letting" this happen. THEY ARE INTENTIONALLY CAUSING IT FOR THEIR OWN MATERIAL GAIN. And to do this they have had to lie and lie and lie and lie about their reasons. And the news media has had to trumpet these lies over and over and over again -- often knowing full well the lies for what they are.

[saged52]

19. exactly!

That particular line really nailed the whole thing, didn't it? Then - and now.

[GarySeven]

10. After watching it, I could smell the tear gas again ...

Durned if I didn't want to put on the bellbottoms and take me and the old lady up to Metzger's Farm in the VW bus.

But on a more serious note, I really think that all of us who lived the Revolution should teach it to our grandchildren, or to any person entering college these days. Because it seems to me the only thing that is keeping the Sixties from "coming back" - and that is to say, a common upswing of popular resistance to a corrupt government by gangsters - is a lack of outrage among the youth that they are being sacrificed and their lives STOLEN for the profit-making of fat white men who sneer at their culture.

Teach. Teach your children well.

[Booster]

13. If they bring back the draft, you will again see outrage amont the

youth. People volunteer now, but when you're forced to fight in a war you truly appose, that makes all the difference in the world. I think the Republicans know that if they bring back the draft, they are dead meat.

[GarySeven]

14. Yes, I thought about that too - and I almost wish the Draft was back

Not only would it have the public outcry you describe, it would also ensure that Republican mothers would suddenly discover the mental torment that only poor and minority mothers feel every day as they fear for the lives of their children.

[FreedomAngel82]

17. Most definitley

This is why nobody is doing that which happened.

[KarenS]

11. I just watched it ,,,,,

I didn't want to,,,, For years I have avoided watching anything that dealt with Viet Nam,,,,, Call it my therapy for the week. I was a teenager in the 60s,,,,, all the killing of that decade,,,, the anger,,,, I cried tonight watching Martin Luther King's funeral,,,, and Bobby Kennedy,,,,

I didn't realize then that student strikes/riots were happening worldwide.

The Republicans haven't changed much, have they?? Bastards.

This country is as divided now as it was then,,,, except this time there's alot of old folks on the left.

:cry:

[Theres-a]

12. I was born in 1967,sorry I missed it,brave people,real heros

First, I was very moved by all the people watching Kennedy's train pass.Second, Kissinger saying it was the nationwide protests that stopped Nixon from using a nuke really made me grateful to everyone who went to DC last weekend.

[FreedomAngel82]

18. The Kennedy train thing was so beautiful and moving

I loved that. It was so beautiful. Young, old, black and white coming together to mourn and say goodbye to such a wonderful person. :(

[Beam Me Up]

20. "Berkeley in the Sixties" is another interesting documentary.

http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=60025099&trkid=189530

The PBS one sounds interesting. I'll watch for it. Have to rent it, though. I no longer watch TV at all.

Sixties were incredible. Despite the war and all the strife, we were optimistic. Many of us believed we could change the world, strongly effect the course of US and human history. Many of us were very disappointed when Regan was put in office. I felt completely defeated and I think a lot of us did. Now here we are. SAME OLD CRAP.

If we want the world to truly change for the better we're going to have to RADICALLY ALTER the structures of power that have brought us to the edge of this abyss. I posted this in another thread earlier but it seems relevant here again:

...knowledge brings responsibility. If we acknowledge that an inner circle of ruling elites controls the world's most powerful military and intelligence system; controls the international banking system; controls the most effective and far-reaching propaganda network in history; controls all three branches of government in the world's only superpower; and controls the technology that counts the people's votes, we might be then forced to conclude that we don't live in a particularly democratic system. And then voting and making contributions and trying to stay informed wouldn't be enough. Because then the duty of citizenship would go beyond serving as a loyal opposition, to serving as a "loyal resistance"—like the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, except that in this case the resistance to fascism would be on the side of the national ideals, rather than the government; and a violent insurgency would not only play into the empire's hands, it would be doomed from the start.

Forming a nonviolent resistance movement, on the other hand, might mean forsaking some middle class comfort, and it would doubtless require a lot of work. It would mean educating ourselves and others about the nature of the truly apocalyptic beast we face. It would mean organizing at the most basic neighborhood level, face to face. (We cannot put our trust in the empire's technology.) It would mean reaching across turf lines and transcending single-issue politics, forming coalitions and sharing data and names and strategies, and applying energy at every level of government, local to global. It would also probably mean civil disobedience, at a time when the Bush regime is starting to classify that action as "terrorism." In the end, it may mean organizing a progressive confederacy to govern ourselves, just as our revolutionary founders formed the Continental Congress. It would mean being wise as serpents, and gentle as doves.

It would be a lot of work. It would also require critical mass. A paradigm shift.

Paranoid Shift

[watrwefitinfor]

22. Just woke up and searched for a thread on this show.

Very surprised to see so few comments and only one vote. This really needs to be voted up before it's too late. This is an extremely important documentary.

I tuned in last night expecting the usual piece of fluff, lies, put-downs and cover-up that usually use to try to explain away the time - to say all our efforts were futile, we were all a fringe! It was a fine surprise.

We might not have fixed the world, but we sure as hell shook it up a little. And this show showed how, why, and quiety drew the parallels to now.

Watching was in many ways like living through it again. As posted up-thread, you could almost smell the tear gas again. And they allowed some of the most important truths in - protest DOES make a difference. One half million people in the streets DOES strike fear into their black hearts. And can even affect policy!

And what was not overtly stated, but was an inevitable conclusion if you were paying attention, was how the assassinations of Martin & Bobby and the shooting of George Wallace all cleared the path for Nixon.

I'm amazed that the powers that be now at PBS allowed it to air. Does anyone know if it's available for sale?

Wat

[Armstead]

23. It was made in the 1990's pre Bush PBS

It was apparently brought out of the vaults to make a week of similar programming about the 60's and protest.

The thought occurred to me that perhaps this week of programming might partially be the staff and stations of PBS thumbing their nose at the efforts by the GOP to put it into a conservative straightjacket.

It was an excellent documentary, if a bit dry in style. It did bring back memories of how intense those years were -- a mix of exciting and hopeful and awful....There's a tendency in memory to compress and simplify eras. This was a reminder that it went on for years and years, and how long Vietnam was an intractable reality with no end in sight.

Also was a reminder of the chain from people like Wallace, REagan and Nixon to today, and how deep the political/cultural schism was then. It was below the radar for a while, but there is a direct link between the resentments of then and now.

The violence of the protests was also sobering to watch. Although we complain today about suppression of free speech, so far we haven't had anything nearly as brutal as some of those events.

[2Design]

26. I had not realized that Nixon was more the beginning of shift to

right - that ted kennedy's mistake took him out of the range of keeping nixon in check - thought reagan was the mistake -
most of these kids protesting had the legal right to vote - wonder how many did and who they voted for

I don't remember

didn't realize then how much the media played such a big role in who people voted for -

amazing to look back and see how we all could have done things differently