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Civil rights movements, anti-war protesters, folk singers, and flower children…..

I came to this country to attend graduate school in the fall of 1963 at a time when the US was undergoing a tidal wave of changes.

There were the civil rights movements which brought about the 1964 Civil Rights Act that outlawed the discriminatory voting practices which prevailed in southern states using literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. It has also brought about the 1965 Immigration Act that had fundamentally changed the US demographics, allowing for the first time non-European to immigrate en mass into the United States.

Then there were the anti Vietnam war protests which started around 1964 and crescendo-ed on October 17, 1967 when 100,000 people marched on Washington, D.C. to peacefully demonstrate against the war. Photographer Marc Riboud documented the proceedings and captured the image of a 17-year-old Jan Rose Kasmir holding up a chrysanthemum flower to a row of bayonet-wielding National Guard soldiers, symbolizing the term flower children.

As a graduate student, I was drawn into the folk songs culture. I was singing, strumming my guitar, and harmonizing to the tunes of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, John Lennon, Peter-Paul-Mary, the Kingston Trio and others. San Francisco was the center of the flower children culture. The Haight Ashbury district was the home to the flower children, revolutionaries, folk singers and cult leaders. As the lyrics say “Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end…”

Fast forward to 2022. I have since become a US citizen for over fifty years. I have enjoyed democracy and personal freedom. In many ways, I am living the “American Dream”. But is our country doing well? Many people think not!

Although our GDP remains the number one in the world, in at least six indicators we have fallen way behind. To wit they are: Criminal Justice; Gun Violence; Healthcare; Education; Inequality; and, Infrastructure. Additionally, our country spends more on national defense than China, India, Russia, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, Japan, and South Korea — combined. You may say that we are over-spending on defense to the neglect of other national priorities.

We seem to have lost our ways in the last 3-4 decades. We have rested on our laurels while other countries have overtaken us in many areas. I would love to see a rejuvenation of the United States such as those that greeted me when I first arrived.

How I’d love to hear those lyrics again: “If you’re going to San Francisco, Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair…….”

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