1968: The Year That Changed Everything

why are our cities still segregated?
People are living in fear vs. faith and ignorance vs. truth. It appears to me that these are ???divide and conquer??? controll techniques perpetuated by the powers that be.

If women were liberated by the '60s, why do working mothers still feel so chained down?
I???m not a woman but I???ll bet financial slavery has a lot to do with it.

If Vietnam taught us how to be a humble superpower, why are we still bogged down in Iraq?
Graft and greed.

The 60's are a symbol of how society stood together for change; a real good change, not words to the wind. It will be scary to have a president like Obama that does have no clue what presidency is about. He's campain is all about touching meaningless words. Personaly I am in awe watching our country going down hill with most of the society looking the other way even when affects majority. The debt is out of control, political leadership is trading valious to our cost loosing the point of what the founding father really wanted out of this country, a place for prosperous free people. Out of the crowded candidacy there is not a single one I could completly support. Republicans are lost trying to understand what are they all about, lousy economists leading us somewhere to increase their own wealth ruining america's people. Democrats good economists, bad in everything else. What to say about the security, the rights to terrorists and the super intrusion into the intelligence community that does not know how to do their job without having everybody having an opinion about it and on top of that the congress broadcasting useless hearings discussing national issues so the world can ruin us even more instead of passing legislations that can protect regular people from key issues as taxation, health and the pursue of the american dream (where is it now?).
Shame on you America, the greatest country lost to their own polititians!!.

Here's the insights of a young artist who wasn't there but recognizes that "the sixties" was an explosion whose dust continues to settle on our lives every day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKBk2J7SNuA

I searched your "1968" coverage in vain for an overview article on the year itself. Instead, you had pieces on how the decade of the Sixties changed everything, the "worst week" of the year, Ellis Cose's memories of the ghetto, the feminist protest of the Miss America pageant, the Beatles' infatuation with transcendental meditation, the rock and roll hits of the year, and the Apollo 8 mission to the moon. You had one sentence on the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, no mention of the Tet offensive, or the police riot at the Chicago Democratic National Convention, or the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, or the seizure of the U.S.S. Pueblo and its crew, or the election of Tricky Dick -- all of which would give context to your observation that the Apollo 8 flight "saved" an otherwise disastrous year.

I was puzzled by your cover treatment on the year 1968, because I looked in vain for an article on the year itself -- all you had were pieces on the "worst week" of the year, Ellis Cose's memories, the feminist assault on the Miss America pageant, the Beatles and their fling with transcendental meditation, the arts, and the Apollo 8 mission to the moon. It is much easier to appreciate how the inspiring Apollo 8 flight "saved" the sinkhole of despair that was the rest of the year if one knows about the disastrous Tet offensive, the horrible plane crashes, the police riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that August, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia that same month, and of course the election of Tricky Dick as president -- to mention just a few of the awful episodes of 1968. How strange that Newsweek would leave such gaps in what I thought was intended to be a comprehensive look back at that memorable year!

Question; Where is Richard M. Nixon hiding in this article? Answer: Everywhere. Point: It defies belief that any serious view of 1968 could fail to even mention Nixon, who had a hand in or at least a fingerprint on every issue that's discussed in this article on a year that "changed everything." With all respect, I'd suggest that Nixon's rise to power and the Cultural Revolution in China were far more significant than the "We Didn't Start The Fire" approach that this article seems to take toward 1968.

The question is indeed, should we leave the '60s behind or should we finish what was started? Were those ideals of the activists rather an American expression of the Enlightenment moving forward? The U.S. has always fought the issue of whether it wants to be Washingtonian/Hamiltonians or Jeffersonian/Madisonians? The '60s were about bringing the political civilization up to equal the push for the capitalist, strong on defense civilization. A nation needs both a compassionate soul and strong boundaries. We have over the last 16 years or so moved far too much over to the military/capitalist side. In order to bring all that it means to be civilized back into balance, we must go back to the social justice issues of the '60s. We don't go back to eliminate economic prosperity and military strength. We go back to bring them into balance with the spiritual values of a just society.

My what an interesting dialogue - so much finger pointing and blaming. Once again the conversation is about the problems and who's responsible. We all have heard the answers to that ad infinitum. That horse is dead. Where is the conversation about solutions? All be it a worn cliche', every journey begins with the first step. Why can't we get beyond the issues raised by the 60's. Every generation since then has had the opportunity to make that happen. As a "boomer" I surely don't feel quite as powerful nor self-involved as some of the comments would make me out to be.

What have we learned from the past? When I look around and try to to picture where we stand in america, I try to envision a painted canvas that shows all of our past accomplishments and mistakes. We have tried to add to this painting since the birth of our country and at times it looks like our painting could be a great master piece. However we as Americans almost seem afraid to act as curators and change parts of the painting were we know that we have made mistakes. It doesn't matter what generation critics say is having the biggest affect on todays culture and ideas. We have to first realize that we can no longer try quick fixes to our country's largest problems. We first have to quit depending on foreign countries to help us meet all of our needs. We as americans and a government have to take notice that we are free no more. We are now controlled by large corporations and industries. These companies dicate how we spend our money, keep technological advances from us to increase their profit shares ( ex. car manufacturers, drug companies,and oil companies) and they pad our legislators pockets to ensure that their companies way of life is not harmed. When will we say no more. How much longer will we continue to give tax breaks to companies from overseas that continue to put American people out of work. How much longer will we let generations of people continue to get government money without making sure that they should be receiving this funds. How much longer will the government continue to make decisions that are not in the countries best interest. ( the war, illegal spending of governmental funds(specialized earmark programs), continue to allow companies to be a bully of the democratic process and how much longer will continue to allow people to take our everyday freedoms from us. To begin to make any change in our society and as I illustrated before to our country's painting we first have to realize that we are all americans. We are not republicans, democrats, liberals, conservatives, right wingers or left wingers but rather we are all americans. We all want to have our basic needs met through the way of love / affection, nourishment, shelter, to be needed, wealth and happiness. We would all like our government to act in our best interest much like an investment banker acts in your best interest with your money. We want to be able to trust that when the government say something they are going to followthrough and not let us down by sticking to their word. And ideally we would like to see the government get back to the policy of being a goverment of by the people for the people. Until we are ready to accept this change and try to revert back to the ideas while realizing that we all created equal than we will continue to be destructive to our future and contine to ruin our painting that once was consider a masterpeice in the making.

Amen Bill. One cannot escape one's basic character. Just like an individual, a country is subject to the laws of cause and effect. Genocide (Indians), slavery, racism, hypocritical wars, corporate ownership of our government, etc. - These are simply effects. The cause is our national belief system. As a nation we believe we are somehow "special" and are entitled to what we want even if we have to ignore our stated principles to obtain it. We talk a good game, but when it's time to choose between our principles or some shiny object that's grabbed our attention, we invariably grab for our precious bauble at the expense of our integrity. Of course we follow our actions by bending over backwards trying to justify the unjustifiable. This pattern has been repeated ad infinum throughout the history of our nation.

We believe in a nation's sovereignty unless we want it's oil. Our politicians bemoan the fact that our government is for sale to corporate lobbyists until someone places a huge check in THEIR collection plate. Our citizen's go to rallies against global warming. . .in their SUVs! The endless list of examples would be funny if it weren't so sad.

We are a nation of hypocrites. We are a nation of spoiled ideologues; on an individual and collective level. This is the cause. The external strife and struggle is just a reflection of our internal deficiencies. It is only the effect.

You can't affect the effect. You can only make true changes at the level of the cause.

The '60's were simply the most recent manifestation of the underlying conflicted American mythology. This country has always been plagued by the gap between its well-stated ideals and the crude realities practiced: first on the plantations, then in the wilderness with the American Indians, then with progressive waves of abused immigrants.

We can't get over the 60's because the conflicts they raised are inherent in the American character. We can only resolve to move forward to the ideals that have given us strength and stature in the world. The Bush approach of turning our backs on those ideals is the most deparate and cynical practice of machiavellan politics we have seen in decades.

If there is anything the United Sates can??t "let go" it is not the sickingly over-emphasized 60s but the Civil War. What defines the United States? The ideological myths of the self-indulgent, knowitallistic generation that are the baby boomers (not just in America) - or overzealous and uncompromising nationalism - which is in a significant part a heritage of the Civil War. Hailing from Central Europe, I see really no difference in all the line-up of presidential candidates - all, "baby boomer" or not, spread the myth of the benevolent hope for all humanity. Reducing contemporary issues facing the US to a decade of dangerous idealism, as it has been done in this article, seems overly simplistic to me.