MLK

[Paul Mackin]

On Thu, 2004-01-08 at 06:32, Toby G Levy wrote:
> Bandwraith wrote:
> 
> "I guess you've defined "hippie" to include only those people
> whom you seek to disparage. That's okay, but there were many
> who fit the demographic who were really upset by the murder of
> MLK, Jr. (and several months later of RFK), but, I guess, "they" 
> wouldn't fit into your simple categorization."
> 
> I don't mean to disparage anybody.  I am talking about my personal
> experience.  I was 21 in 1968.  I had dropped out of college and was
> working temp jobs out in San Francisco and having the time of my life. 
> When King was shot it was not more than a few moments of conversation and
> up and down the Haight Ashbury district there was no unusual activity. 
> When Kennedy was shot, there was a little more grief, but only because of
> the proximity to the other Kennedy assassination.  However, when Joplin
> and Hendrix died, you would have thought the world had just ended.  
> 
> Perhaps I should have said "young adults" rather than "hippies." To me in
> 1968 the terms were synonymous.


The general thrust of what Toby is saying rings truer for me than much
of what is being remembered here. King wasn't "revolutionary" enough
culturally and politically for 60s youth and that goes for white and
black youth alike. For one thing he was very late in taking a decisive
stand against the war. 

I observed the founding of SDS from an angle few if any p-listers can
share. A colleague of mine was the father of one of the original group.
By virtue of the fact that the kid could type he was the one who
performed that vital service for the P.H. statement. This is the way his
father told it anyway. Dad was very proud. In its early days SDS was
something to be proud of.