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The impact Abbie’s life had on America still echoes through the generations. The fight for freedom isn’t over, just resting. Revolution is in the air, I can feel it. America is gearing up for the next round of discontent. I’m to old and tired now; this time I’ll watch form the front porch. Hardly a day goes by that my mind doesn’t wonder to the past, I live with the memories of a misunderstood generation. Those who sat on the porch in the sixties and seventies didn’t understand our cause until it was over. It took the establishment many years to catch up to what we had preached. Today every politician in America preaches equality, now if we could only get them to preach freedom. The next generation has a tough fight ahead of them. My words of wisdom are” one voice can make a difference.” Only those who believe they can move a mountain, will move it, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, faith is power. Let your life be a voice for change! In the last Presidential election the battle car for change could once again be heard. Progress came at a price: history is stained with the blood of my generation. Now let us take a look at what the blood of my generation did for this nation. The sixties were a melting pot of social activists, Martin Luther King’s equal rights movement was in full swing. Women’s Liberation– a fight for equal rights to men was taking hold and gathering support. Hippies- protesting for an end to the Vietnam War, along with a list of other injustices, were organizing. This Cultural Revolution had given birth to new ideas, and was sweeping across America. Rooted deep within a generation was the beating heart of freedom, and with it, the voice of change was growing louder. Subcultures of patriotic Americans wanting to be heard were beating down the doors to Congress. The establishment resisting reform sets out on an ill-fated journey, to quench the burning fires of freedom. Democracy itself would be tested before the decades of decadence would end. A nation being pulled in many directions would face its toughest challenges since the Second World War. All sides fighting for their piece of the American dream, leftist ideology verses old school democracy. All locked in a battle for control of the wealthiest, most powerful nation to grace the pages of history– America. During the Vietnam War the only way to avoid the draft was to attend college. The universities and colleges across America were overflowing with hippies. This worked in the socialist hippie movement’s favor, in ways they hadn’t expected. After the war well educated hippies would go on to every level of American society. Bill Clinton was the first hippie voted President of the Untied states. Bill and his wife Hillary were activists whose voices carried them to the panicle of success. Alongside their hippie counter parts they would carry the message of a generation. Other hippies went on to the Senate and Congress, while others got involved in state and local governments. By the 1980’s well educated hippies were brining their socialist ideology to Washington. With them the Democratic Party began to grow in power. In time Democracy would give way to reform. |