Whistling Past the Graveyard

Most people go about their daily lives as if nothing had changed--then notice the change decades later. There is a persistent hope in a democracy that things will ultimately get worked out in the next election cycle.

The political landscape is constantly shifting under your feet (just as it was in 1968). Artists and writers might be more observant, or empathetic towards it because it is grist for creativity.

“In 1968 we all stood at a tipping point. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. Andy Warhol was shot. Richard Nixon won the presidency. Peace and freedom protests and riots swept the world from New York to Paris to Prague to Mexico City to the Democratic Convention to the Miss America Pageant. Women gathered for the first National Women’s Liberation Conference. The first humans orbited the moon. All the while I gave only passing thoughts to the headlines. With a blinding faith in the future, I simply made babies and brownies..."


Comments

Popular Posts