The Sixties, Vietnam, and Beatlemania Culturally Produced No Meaningful Lessons Learned

Fifty years ago, I was 26 years old. It was The Sixties, a decade that forever changed my view of America's claim of exceptionalism and racial e !ality. It was an era that changed my rah"rah patriotic attit!de and opened my eyes to a very dismal view of patriotism. I wo!ld never tr!st government again. It was a time when the #ma$e love, not war% mantra made a hell of a lot more sense than what we were doing in &ietnam. It was a t!m!lt!o!s time littered with many conf!sing !estions that I now view with m!ch disappointment. It was a decade that has proven not to 'e very fr!itf!l for America. (!lt!rally it destroyed America. A little less than ) months following *F+,s assassination, a heretofore"!n$nown -eatles proved how mar$eting co!ld create the cra.e #-eatlemania.% The /061 -eatles were a prec!rsor of things to come. Their appearance on The 2d S!llivan Show in /061 exemplified how promoters co!ld exploit adolescent m!sic and ma$e h!ge amo!nts of money. There have 'een no meaningf!l lessons learned from The Sixties. At the time, there was a generation of yo!ng people on the right side of many iss!es that did not carry over into ad!lthood. I 'elieve it,s why we have tro!'le in o!r parenting and o!r schools. The yo!ng people of that time carried over attit!des of permissiveness and disrespect into how they raised their children. Those res!lts, too, are disappointing. 3y 4em'ro$e, 3assach!setts comm!nity, as well as in the larger -oston comm!nity where I wor$ed was ca!ght !p with #-eatlemania.% At that time, the death of *F+ was now in their rearview mirror and other pressing iss!es of the day seemed !nimportant. At 56 years old it has 'een a #6ard 7ay,s 8ight% and it certainly doesn,t #ma$e me feel alright.%