-———however, having also lived through the late ‘60 and early ‘70s, in the “belly of the beast””
You were actually there,lucky you. I often joke that I spent the sixties in the kitchen,which is close to the truth,but every time I turned on my little kitchen radio I would get angrier and angrier.
The 60s turned this Dem-—(working class Boston Irish) into a conservative-—I DETESTED what was going on.
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"LUCKY" ?
I certainly didn't think I was "lucky" when I saw how much this vermin were ruining/had ruined my beloved Central park, nor when the "weekend Hippies" took over the streets in my neighborhood, begging for money, ranting and raving, and openly smoking pot. I was shocked by the SDS and Hippie/Yippie leadership were training the brain dead, how to fight cops and get CAMERA TIME, during the Dem Convention in Chicago ( which was clear to me, when I was watching that Convention on T.V. ), on the Sheeps' Meadow, as I took a shortcut to see my parents. Nor was I thrilled when the Weathermen blew up that brownstone, which was not only quite near where I was living and also were I was working at the time.
Like you, I was furious, disgusted, but felt impotent to do anything to stop the madness...so did what little I could do, which was to spit at those who were spitting on returning military and to verbally give them holy hell !
I worked on both of President Nixon's winning presidential campaigns and wore a bunch of buttons for him, even in Greenwich Village! LOL...the young ( including me ) can be foolish. I'm lucky that I wasn't ever physically attacked. Sadly, today, I would be.
Heck I survived the Boston Bus Riots, and was one of only two white kids in the entire school I was in.... Talk about interesting times.