VLVL(6) the Movement WAS Re: Absences in VL

[BekkerA at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/4/98 5:40:34 PM, millison at online-journalist.com wrote:

>But, following David's thoughtful post, I'll add that in the end the
>anti-Vietnam War movement in the U.S. was in perhaps the most important way
>successful:  without the steadily escalating protest, the
>military-industrial cartels and their puppet politicians could have kept
>the war going far longer --  the protests forced the issue and helped end
>the war.  And it wasn't all fun and games for the protesters, either
>(although there was certainly fun and games associted with the movement) --
>too many killed, clubbed, gassed, jailed.

Not only that but far more than college rebels and activists got involved.
(This might be why it was successful.)  In San Francisco at the marches in and
around Golden Gate Park many groups had signs reading "Grandma's against the
War," "Unionists against the War," "Gays against the War" and so on. The dress
of these groups was in line with their signs. Their were old, young, middle
aged, long-hairs, short-hairs, dowdy dressers and freaks. The anti-war effort
united a lot of divergent groups and individuals.

This became even more apparent when, upon the end of the war, the
environmentalists, the women's movement, the gay movement, tried to harnass
the energy and cohesion of the anti-war movement and failed utterly. 

Everyone went their own ways. Some got caught up in the drug scene, some
pushed a women's agenda, others got involved in the environmental struggle and
others simply went back to work or school. 

It seems to me that VL traces the lives of those peripherally attached to the
anti-war movement via the drug/hippie scene rather than the anti-war thing
itself. Some of them simply got off the train then and never got back. The
world went on but they didn't.  As David said, "sad."