The television we had seemed to be continuously running stories about the Manson trials, Patty Hearst, the search for Bill and Emily Harris, the fiery SLA shootout (I saw them burn to death on good old KTTV Channel 11 out of Los Angeles), the final days of Vietnam and the fall of Saigon, creepy European left wing "Red Army" militants setting off bombs everywhere, Black Panthers on the run, President Nixon facing impeachment, and and all the while every single adult I lived around was riveted to all this shockingly-weird violent insanity on the tube. I'd never regarded Arabs as anything but terrorists in ski masks trying to set the world on fire and kill children.
Everywhere I went there were copies of Bugliosi's Helter Skelter with the middle of the book displaying all the shocking pictures of the Manson murder victims, made to seem even more horrifying to my eyes because the murder victims themselves were 'whited-out' in the crime scene photos. Not to mention all the pictures of the dirty violent Manson hippies and their kooky clothes.
I started grade school when all that stuff was reaching it's peak. Just try to imagine. The culture of the early 1970s had imprinted on me as a young child the fact that hippies were dirty creepy people who were to be avoided and that Apollo astronauts were basically the only decent thing in America -- Well, them and girls who looked like Marcia Brady.
Piss on Leslie Van Houten for what she did. California better never let her out of jail. In fact, when she dies in prison, there needs to be a rule that they bury her body right out there in the prison courtyard. Only thing I can say positive about her is that she helped make me a conservative at a very young age. I swore that when I grew up to be an adult, the first thing I was going to do was buy a gun. So, for that, Leslie, thanks. You dirty evil bitch.
I hear you and saw the same things but I was a young adult, I especially remember the SLA shootout. It probably was channel 11 but I was thinking it might have been 5:)
“I started grade school when all that stuff was reaching it’s peak. Just try to imagine. The culture of the early 1970s had imprinted on me as a young child the fact that hippies were dirty creepy people who were to be avoided “
Hey, you’re talking about my peeps!
Accurately, but still...