1968

[jwirr]

5. Thank you Yuiyoshida for posting this. I was setting home

with two of my children and expecting another when this happened. This was part of a year that changed my life. I am what I am today because of this and the deaths of MLK and RFK not to mention many others.

So as I was watching the documentary I was thinking about today vs then.

To begin with there is a big difference in the world situation. We were in Vietnam then and that was one of the main issues. A war and the draft. The people protesting were not all college students but many were. I did not go to college until years later.

Today the situation is different and effects many more of us. Our whole world is in trouble and we have vital problems that need to be addressed like Climate Change. The people who are protesting now are voters who are supposed to be a real part of the system but are finding out that they can vote all they won't but have consistently been ignored. We are living under a corporate oligarchy. So the situation is different both in why we are in a movement and what we are fighting for.

As you listen to the narrators it is very clear that the idea of establishment vs the people is the same. And like back then the establishment now does not believe that we are a part of their party. The protesters were told outright that they were not wanted. As if they thought we wanted to be part of that party after the convention!!

And convention managers have not changed either. Voice votes with the chair calling the winner before anyone could even object. Watching I was as angry as I was that week. About both then and now.

IMO the only thing that Humphrey could have done differently was go down and walk with the candle light marchers. But I suppose that would have been very dangerous.

I hope at Philly if there is controversy that we will remember to stay non-violent - let them be to blame. And I hope they understand that we are NOT an invading army but instead we are actually half of the Democratic Party.

This is not going to be a coronation.