'70

"'We may have lost the battle, sweets, but the war is far from over.' --A Christopher Street bar 'queen' to the New York Times after the Stonewall Riot, July 1969" (340).

Yet again, the '60 counterculture inspires another human rights movement: gay rights. What this so-called "queen" says is true for the millions of gay people of America: in 1970, they had a long fight ahead of them. Even today, gay rights are still being fought for and against: in California, Proposition [h]8 was recently passed, banning the year-long allowance of gay marriage in the state. In this day and age, when we're supposed to be open minded and socially liberal, as most people recognize that personal choices shouldn't really be judged by the state, gay marriage was struck down by the uber-liberal, ultra-celebritied California. Now, citizens are forcing the CA govt. to look into the support for Proposition [h]8 to prove the the Mormon Church was more than a little bit involved, as they claim to be. Several people, myself included, believe that this was a move by the Mormon Church to denounce citizen's rights to personal choice and legal partnership; to me, this is the same as the opposition to the Civil Rights Movement-- they didn't think Black people were worth equal rights, and now the subject has turned from Black to gay.

The next subject is Kent State and more police brutality. Miles says it best: "The order was given for the National Guard troops to disperse the crowd. The troops retreated to the top of a slope, then opened fire on the unarmed crowd. Sixty-one shots were fired in thirteen seconds, killing four students and wounding nine" (342). In a way to calm the protests and riots that took place after this, Nixon's Commission on Campus Unrest reported, "'In May 1970, students did not strike against their univiersities; they succeeded in making their universities strieagainst national policy...nothing is more important than an end to the war in Indo-China. Disaffected students see the war as a symbol of moral crisis in the nation which...deprives even law of its legitimacy'" (342). Thanks, Prez, the government-- the one you're in control of, supposedly-- opened fire and incited violence for four years on unarmed, non-violent protestors, and now you say they're ok? Now you say that they're only exercising their right to protest? Where was this discussion when the riot in Chicago happened? Where was this discussion when troops opened fire on a peaceful protest, leaving "four dead in Ohio" (CSNY)?

The most important question, though, is whether this would happen today. Again, I'm a Libertarian, which typically places me in the non-violent category, but I'm also extremely, extremely disappointed in how things are being run in this country. Mores from the '50s are still being pressed, and organized institutions-- religion, political parties, business-- run the country, not the people. I'm not a Communist, their idea is starting to sound better than this mockery of Capitalism and Democracy-- at least Communists say they're communists, not practicing Socialism under the name of Democracy (*cough* Barack Obama). I have these beliefs, and I see myself marching in a few years-- it's going to come down to that, I steadfastly believe-- and being shot at by my fellow countrymen. The Man is still in power and the Man will not allow anyone else to share it, and he will hide behind his publicity moves to make people believe He really cares-- oh, but, so sadly, he doesn't. The Man wants power, and he's gonna take it from you.