Society

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On 1968

1968 – 50 years ago; a year of triumph and tragedy; a year of social unrest and cultural changes; the year that some describe as the most tumultuous in history; a year I remember as a 15 year old; a year captured below with randomly ordered events.

 

1968 – A leap year starting on a Monday

1968 – World leaders included Lester Pearson, Pierre Trudeau, Charles de Gaulle, Indira Gandhi, Leonid Brezhnev, Lyndon Johnson, Harold Wilson, Mao Tse-tung

1968 – Vietnam War, Tet Offensive, My Lai massacre, and the end of US bombings

1968 – Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (April) and Robert F Kennedy (June)

1968 – Eastern Bloc armies (Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary) invade Czechoslovakia

1968 – Intel Corporation created

1968- Super Bowl II (2) – Packers vs. Raiders

1968 – Anti-Vietnam War protests throughout the US and the Western World

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1968 – The Beatles White Album

1968 – Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France – the first Winter Olympics broadcast in color

1968 – North Korea captured the USS Pueblo (an American surveillance ship) and its crew

1968 – General Strike in France by students and workers

1968 – Enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 in US

1968 – Dutch Elm disease

1968 – Earthquake in Sicily with 231 dead, 262 injured

1968 – South African Dr. Christian Barnard performs his third human heart transplant

1968 – London Bridge sold for $1 million and re-erected in Arizona

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1968 – US President Johnson surprisingly announces he would not run for another term

1968 – Redwood National Park created in California

1968 – Pope Paul VI bans Catholics from using the contraceptive pill for birth control

1968 – The Poor People’s March on Washington, DC

1968 – Zodiac serial murderer in California

1968 – France becomes the world’s fifth nuclear power

1968 – Several major US cities elect black mayors

1968 – Unrests on college campuses across the US

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1968 – Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy marry

1968 – The Ferry TEV Wahine capsizes in Wellington Harbour, New Zealand_

1968 – The nuclear-powered US submarine Scorpion sinks in the Atlantic Ocean (99 crew members died)

1968 – Hong Kong Flu pandemic begins in Hong Kong

1968 – Student riots threaten Mexico Olympics

1968 – Black power salute after the gold and bronze medalists at Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico

1968 – Completed: The Aswan Dam in Egypt and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri

1968 – The border between Spain and Gibraltar is closed

1968 – Riots at the Democratic Party National Convention in Chicago, Illinois

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1968 – The first Big Mac goes on sale at McDonalds at a cost of 49 cents

1968 – The Beatles create Apple Records and release “Hey Jude” as the first single on the label

1968 – Richard Nixon defeated Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace for US President (Wallace is the last third-party candidate to win Electoral votes)

1968 – Boeing introduces 747 aircraft

1968 – Mattel introduces Hot Wheel Cars

1968 – Kymer Rouge forms in Cambodia

1968 – Led Zeppelin performs for the first time

1968 – Allen K Breed invents an airbag for cars

1968 – Yale University announces it will admit women

1968 – Apollo 8 orbits the Moon (first manned mission to do so)

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1968 – US Explodes experimental hydrogen bomb and France explodes its first

1968 – Emergency 911 Telephone service starts in the US

1968 – The first ATM (automated teller machine) in the US (Philadelphia)

1968 – CBS airs “60 Minutes” shown for the first time

1968 – Musical Hair, featuring nudity and taking drugs) opens in London and then New York City

1968 – Popular films include The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde, The Odd Couple, Planet of the Apes, Rosemary’s Baby, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

1968 – Popular Songs include Hey Jude (Beatles), Mrs. Robinson (Simon & Garfunkel), Hello I Love You (Doors), Honey (Bobby Goldsboro), I Heard it through the Grapevine (Marvin Gaye), Love is Blue (Paul Mauriat), The Dock of the Bay (Otis Redding), People Got to Be Free (Rascals)

1968 – Birth year for Will Smith, Celine Dion, LL Cool J, Cuba Gooding Jr, Guy Fieri, Kenny Chesney, Michael Weatherly, Barry Sanders, Rachael Raye, Mary Lou Retton

1968 – Death year for Yuri Gagarin, Helen Keller, Charlie Chaplin, Robert F Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr

1968 – First interracial kiss on US television (Star Trek)

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Learn more about 1968

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On Justice

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Justice – a concern for fairness, peace, and genuine respect for people. (Google Dictionary)

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Activist, Reformer)

It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world. Mary Wollstonecraft (Writer)

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe. Frederick Douglass (author)

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both. Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady)

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope. Winston Churchill (Statesman)

Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don’t believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others. Coretta Scott King (Activist)

But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Book of Amos, 5:24)

A joint youth-adult choir sang a song at our church’s musical event celebrating the Reformation’s 500-year anniversary. I choked up listen to it during rehearsal, and then again during the concert. Enjoy Roll Down Justice by Mark A. Miller.

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On I Remember These

Besides the fact that technology is one reason the world has become smaller, many of us have seen much change right before our eyes. On the other hand, who knows what the young people today will end up seeing across their lifetime. After all, I recall driving around when he visited us at least 25 years ago, and out of the clear blue he said, “This is going to be some world in another 50 years.” I imagine he was reflecting on his time since 1925.

In my case, growing up in a rural part of Ohio helped delay the implementation of certain products and services, but here are some things from my past (and I’m sure I left out plenty of other good points).

I remember …

… Watching Howdy Doody

… The arrival of basic cable

… Drinking Fizzies

… Dialing Operator to make a local phone call

… Paying $1 and getting 3 gallons of gas

… The time when small town merchants thrived

… Mr Adams having no assigned homework because he knew we would be watching the Batman debut

… Elementary class taking time to watch the launching of the Mercury astronauts

… High school chemistry and physics classes requiring the use of a slide rule

… Doing computer programming on keypunch cards – that is with each line on a separate card and hoping never to drop them

… The transition due to Vatican II

… Stroh’s and Pabst Blue Ribbon being big-named national beers

… Watching a 1-hr version on Sunday morning (11 am) of the Notre Dame game the day before – and broadcast by the legendary Lindsey Nelson

… The first McDonald’s coming to the area and the sign including “x Millions Sold”

… The British music invasion

… Boxes of laundry detergent containing free glassware or towels

… Home milk delivery

… Burger Chef

… Receiving stamps (Green, Yellow, or Plaid) for grocery store purchases that were redeemable for merchandise

… Instrumental hits as Telstar, Popcorn, and Tijuana Taxi

… 1968 being the most turbulent year ever

… Airports having outside observation decks

… Stores closed on Sundays

… Teens wondering when they would get the car for the evening (as opposed to what car they get when turning 16)

Just a trip down memory lane for me and hopefully I stimulated your memory, so feel to add others.

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On Movies and Society

I have said for a long time that an artist’s work is a response to something in society of the times. Pick the media … Painting, sculptures, music, novels, poems, movies, and so … and the concept holds true. Take fear for instance. What would a painting about fear appear? How would music about fear sound? What would a poem about fear make you feel? On the other hand, what were Shakespeare, Beethoven, Rockwell, or Cervantes saying about society at their time through their art?

During the recent holiday, I saw several movies about society and human behavior. Each of these served as many commentaries about the multicultural America of today. Each of these had numerous examples that made me angry, proud, ashamed, joyous, and various other moods.

I think back to the early 1900s and the boat loads of immigrants who came to America with very little – yet came to seek freedom or opportunity. The many that came through immigration stations as Ellis Island as my grandparents did … and yes, even my mother. Many settled in common neighborhoods in cities, some of which still exist today. Although I did not live during that time, but I am sure these immigrants dealt with many prejudices.

Today the world is more mobile. Not only are immigrants still legally coming to America, many are from other cultures with whom we are less familiar. Whether by foot or by boat, illegal immigration today is a lightening rod topic that also causes people to stereotype.

I saw the following movies: The Blind Side, Crash, and Gran Torino. All interesting and well done – but even more intriguing when one sees them over several days. With that in mind, here’s an interesting report from ABC News.

PS: Thanks Tim for the video.

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On Christians, Jews, Vulcans, and Valentine

Although not published on this day, I happen to be writing this post on Yom Kippur – the Jewish Day of Atonement. I’m not Jewish, but I do believe that not only do different religions have some things in common, but “other than your own” religions provide principles that are important in helping a person live a spiritual life.

On Yom Kippur Jews use prayer to be retrospective on their own life, and then seek forgiveness for their wrong doings against God. By looking within at they have been and how they can be better, Jews use three steps of repentance: recognize, acknowledge, and resolve.

We live in age of town hall cranks, self-serving politicians, reality-show television, smack talk, obnoxious talk-show hosts and their listeners who help proclaim the spews of evil and ridicule of others to dominate our society of greed and self-promotion and interest. Therefore it seems that all of us could use self-reflection to develop civility, ethics, compassion, and an outlook of pulling others through the difficulties of life.

I’m not a Trekkie, but I’ve seen my share of Star Trek episodes and movies. The scene that sticks in my mind is the initial Vulcan assessment of Earth humans because they were appalled at our behaviors, cultural divides, use of fighting, and many other humanisms, which seemed uncivilized and barbaric to them.

Although some think of Vulcans as emotionless, I believe that it is more accurate to say that they work to suppress their emotions through self-control in order to use reason and logic in their problem solving and decision making. I often wonder if Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry thought of Vulcans as what humans could be.

And then there’s Philippians 2:1-4 from Christianity:

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

I can’t forget Tim Valentine whose blog I often read. Tim often writes about race because he truly believes that race should be irrelevant in human encounters. Although Tim realizes that society has made positive strides, to him advances are too slow as he wants people to treat each with civility and respect–regardless of race, religion, political labels, nationality, heritage, or whatever segments society uses to divide people.

So there it is, a religion embracing self-reflection for living a better life through care and compassion, another religion expressing love and compassion over selfishness, a fictional society stressing logic and reason to seeking meaningful solutions, and one person trying to not only practice what he preaches, but also promote for the good of all through respect for all. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if these principles were commonly practiced?