An open letter to young hippies

Originally Posted by Dirtyhippycommiebastard

Both you and Shale hit on the nail!Back to my other point though,What i'm trying to say is back then they had things like "Teach ins" and student protesters "liberating" the school.Now you say names like Abbie Hoffman or Malcolm X and they look at you like your a martian!And they have only the most basic knowledge of MLK(if you REALLY read up on him you'll find he definitely was no "namby pamby we shall over come" guy).I even wrote a poem about this awhile back.Check it out at the link below.

http://allpoetry.com/poem/1978138

It's funny I was in high school when the movie Malcolm X came out. I actually had a kid who was wearing a baseball cap with a big X on it ask me who Malcolm X was.

Here is an interesting political fact. The free speech movement at UC Berkeley was started by a conservative. While UC Berkeley was letting the Hippies pass out their papers and sell their books, the Socialists pass out their papers and sell their books, and the Black Militants Pass out their papers and sell their books they wouldn't let the Young Republicans Hand out their papers and sell their William F. Buckley books.

The thing you have to remember is that these same kids who look at you like you have a booger on your face when you mention Malcolm X or Martin Luther King are the same kids who would have given you the same reaction in 60s.

About the Teach-ins. I have thought it would be nice if they came back. But is it really still relevant now that we are in the information age. The world of information (and misinformation) is available at a mouse click.

One of the problems with the educational system in this country is that the high school US History classes essentially stop with the end of WWII. Vietnam gets glossed over. I was lucky that my US history teacher in high school was a Vietnam Veteran so we talked about that for 2 weeks instead of one.

So kid here's your alternate US history assignment. While you are sitting at your computer. Look up Joe Macarthy and the House Un-American Activities Commission. While you are at it Read the book Johnny got his Gun With the forward. After that See the Movie and see the documentary Trumbo. Also watch the movie The Majestic with Jim Carrey. Watch "the Chicago 10" and "Medium Cool" since the director was almost tried with Hoffman and the riot footage was the actual Chicago riot. Watch "Easy Rider" all the way through. See "The Weather Underground". Look up Cointelpro. Then see "Thunderheart" "Insedent at Oglala," and "Reasonable Doubt: Mumia Abu Jamal". Look up Assata Shakur and read her autobiography. Talk to people who were there and will give you the unfiltered view while they are still alive. Ask them how it feels to go from "Never trust anyone over thirty" to being almost sixty.

The thing is that during the sixties these sources were largely unavailable. The fact that you have some faceless stranger 3000 miles away from you filling you in on this with out ever having a face to face conversation or having to wait a couple of days to get the letter.

Peace Out,
Rev J

I also forgot to mention that the longest and most successful occupation of a government building didn't even happen during the 60s. It was 1977 a group of disabled advocates occupied a building in Sacramento for I believe about a month (the disabled are great at sit ins if you can't walk what else can you do [that's dry sarcasm]) for disabled rights. The Black Panthers helped out by bringing them supplies every day.

Peace Out,
Rev J

Originally Posted by Reverand JC

It's funny I was in high school when the movie Malcolm X came out. I actually had a kid who was wearing a baseball cap with a big X on it ask me who Malcolm X was.

Here is an interesting political fact. The free speech movement at UC Berkeley was started by a conservative. While UC Berkeley was letting the Hippies pass out their papers and sell their books, the Socialists pass out their papers and sell their books, and the Black Militants Pass out their papers and sell their books they wouldn't let the Young Republicans Hand out their papers and sell their William F. Buckley books.

The thing you have to remember is that these same kids who look at you like you have a booger on your face when you mention Malcolm X or Martin Luther King are the same kids who would have given you the same reaction in 60s.

About the Teach-ins. I have thought it would be nice if they came back. But is it really still relevant now that we are in the information age. The world of information (and misinformation) is available at a mouse click.

One of the problems with the educational system in this country is that the high school US History classes essentially stop with the end of WWII. Vietnam gets glossed over. I was lucky that my US history teacher in high school was a Vietnam Veteran so we talked about that for 2 weeks instead of one.

So kid here's your alternate US history assignment. While you are sitting at your computer. Look up Joe Macarthy and the House Un-American Activities Commission. While you are at it Read the book Johnny got his Gun With the forward. After that See the Movie and see the documentary Trumbo. Also watch the movie The Majestic with Jim Carrey. Watch "the Chicago 10" and "Medium Cool" since the director was almost tried with Hoffman and the riot footage was the actual Chicago riot. Watch "Easy Rider" all the way through. See "The Weather Underground". Look up Cointelpro. Then see "Thunderheart" "Insedent at Oglala," and "Reasonable Doubt: Mumia Abu Jamal". Look up Assata Shakur and read her autobiography. Talk to people who were there and will give you the unfiltered view while they are still alive. Ask them how it feels to go from "Never trust anyone over thirty" to being almost sixty.

The thing is that during the sixties these sources were largely unavailable. The fact that you have some faceless stranger 3000 miles away from you filling you in on this with out ever having a face to face conversation or having to wait a couple of days to get the letter.

Peace Out,
Rev J

I'll checkout some of your recomendations but i like to think i'm pretty up on things.My fave book is the Autobiography of Malcolm X(loved the movie.Your little story was funny in a tragic way).Checkout more of my posts in the political videos section(as well as all my other videos).

p.s. A great companion piece to the Autobiography is a book called Making Malcolm by Micheal Eric Dyson.

Originally Posted by Reverand JC

It's funny I was in high school when the movie Malcolm X came out. I actually had a kid who was wearing a baseball cap with a big X on it ask me who Malcolm X was.
Rev J

I got a kick out of kids a few years back when I was in college. I remember when some kids were going around campus talking all this beat up the whiteys/"Malcolm X" crap, and I asked them who they thought he was. They said he was the greatest Black Panther there was. They said he was a spiritual leader for the Nation of Islam. I got a kick out of that, because he disavowed violence after his pilgrimage to Mecca and he wanted nothing to do with the NOI. In fact, it was a couple of members of NOI that killed him.

Really sucks when you jump on the bandwagon, only to find it's the garbage truck.

-on MalcomX-

They said he was a spiritual leader for the Nation of Islam. I got a kick out of that, because he disavowed violence after his pilgrimage to Mecca and he wanted nothing to do with the NOI

Not entirely true- -a leader for sure but...................
Elijah Muhammad - Was the militant black separatist leader> It was his Nation of Islam teachings that inspired Malcolm so much- that he became the " Voice" of Nation of Islam in the 1950s and early 1960s.*
The Panthers initially preferred militant tactics as opposed to MLK,s strategy of nonviolence but later changed thier views and began working with nonviolent organizations, I remember some of this because I was a 15 yr old kid in the Bronx and you could really feel & see the change- as the black man spoke loud and proud> the white people started to take note.
Mainly out of fear, this began the great "white flight" -thousands of people that lived in and around Newark,NJ -to Boston, MA (i cant speak for the west coast or anywhere else) sold thier homes ,at a loss in most cases, just to move outta the diversified urban area,s to some Lilly white suburb a couple of towns away. I guess Ca had the watts riots around this time- -

The irony of it all, is now, the real estate they ran from, is now a thriving multicultural part of town that people with careers & money like Bill Clinton want in on*
The area he has offices in- are in a part of Harlem. that has been gentrified from the core and probably goes for bucks I cant imagine- --The same with the lower East side. The infamous "Bowery" runs along a part of lower Manhattan, that you wouldn't go in unless you were buying heroin, needed a flop house, or needed to pawn some shit, at a row of one of the many pawn shops that ran the entire length of the avenue.
That area now is "the hippest place live right now- unfortunately living in NYC is very expensive and this once run down " Sterno bum " section of town was taken over by Trump who with his Yuppie friends(investors) made millions and millions, turning this area into one of the chiquest area to live in - with beautiful brownstones. Tourists and even NewYorkers who wouldn't go near there -all the way up to the mid 90,s ,are now shopping and dining at some of the best the city has to offer.

Dint mean to go so far off topic- - but I remember some of the guys overseas( 2ND tour guys), telling me "these people wouldn't get away with this shit in 65 or 66"-
In 69,70 it was a whole different army, as if things weren't tense enough- -Ok , if ya read this far thanks- seeya again

jack

Originally Posted by Logan 5

I got a kick out of kids a few years back when I was in college. I remember when some kids were going around campus talking all this beat up the whiteys/"Malcolm X" crap, and I asked them who they thought he was. They said he was the greatest Black Panther there was. They said he was a spiritual leader for the Nation of Islam. I got a kick out of that, because he disavowed violence after his pilgrimage to Mecca and he wanted nothing to do with the NOI. In fact, it was a couple of members of NOI that killed him.

Really sucks when you jump on the bandwagon, only to find it's the garbage truck.

The funnier thing about my story is the kid was white.

Peace Out,
Rev J

Originally Posted by Reverand JC

The funnier thing about my story is the kid was white.

Peace Out,
Rev J

Kinda figured as much.Don't know why.It just sounded that way.

Yeah well I grew up in Maine which is the third Whitest state in America. After Montana and Vermont. I'd get glimpses of black culture because there was a Navy base where I lived then there was the crap that MTV has fed White America about Black Culture.

Not to sound racist but since Coretta Scott King died I'm glad I've stopped seeing this Commercial:

YouTube - McDonald's commericial about Martin Luther King Jr.

YouTube - McDonald's commericial about Martin Luther King Jr.

For fucks sake to go from the voice of the civil rights movement to posthumous pitch man for a resteraunt that is partially responsible for a lot of the health problems in the black community. The only thing I can think of that would be more offensive is if it were a print ad for Newports.

Peace Out,
Rev J

YouTube - The Black KKK Guy from"The Racist Test" on Chatroulette,music video.

YouTube - The Black KKK Guy from"The Racist Test" on Chatroulette,music video.

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