1965. I was a sophomore in high school. Immigration Law Changed Face of America. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an immigration law that led to profound demographic shifts in America. It marked a break from past U.S. policy, which had discriminated against non-northern Europeans. Malcolm X was assassinated. Race riots erupted in Watts, California. The year 1965 marked a turning point in American history. In Selma, Alabama, Martin Luther King Jr. led civil rights demonstrators on a march pushing the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 1965.
In 1965, the United States rapidly increased its military forces in South Vietnam, prompted by the realization that the South Vietnamese government was losing the Vietnam War. On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson traveled to the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, to sign Medicare into law. His gesture drew attention to the 20 years it had taken Congress to enact government health insurance for senior citizens after Harry Truman had proposed it.
1965. I began to believe that amidst the chaos and confusion, all around me, if I did not fight for what I believed to be right, just, fair, and equal, all of those ideals, those American ideals, would die. It is now 2023, and I honestly wonder if time is no longer moving forward, but rather imploding upon itself. Kind of like the “Wayback Machine” from "Peabody's Improbable History", a recurring feature of the 1960s cartoon series The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
1965 the song ‘Eve of Destruction’ was released expressing the fears of that year. Sadly for me, many of those lyrics resonate LOUDLY and RELEVANTLY today, in the year 2023
“Don't you understand what I'm trying to say
Can't you feel the fears I'm feeling today?
And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend
How you don't believe
We're on the eve of destruction.
I can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation
Handful of senators don't pass legislation
When human respect is disintegratin'
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin'
The poundin' of the drums, the pride and disgrace
You can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace
Hate your next door neighbor but don't forget to say grace
And you tell me
Over and over and over and over again, my friend
You don't believe we're on the eve of destruction
No no, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.” (Eve of Destruction/P.F. Sloan)
