the feeling. Sometimes we forget just how much has changed around us that is not "visible" and apparent. I happened to watch a video of a guy reacting to hearing for the first time Joe Cocker at Woodstock. The guy looked to be in his 20's or so. First of all he said the show was at "some place called Woodstock or something". He liked the video and also said that it looked like a lot of people at the concert and so it probably "sold out". He might even think this was just a Joe Cocker concert. No frame of reference. The same kind of thing happens if you talk about beat poetry/music/beatniks. Over half the population thinks Dr. Dre when we say that. No frame of reference about Vietnam, the Draft, open housing fights, freedom riders, J. Edgar, getting kicked out of school for long hair and all the rest. Kent State to them is just a small college in Ohio. Look how many today holler free speech but know nothing of Berkeley. House Un-American Activities Committee is nothing to them. Much of what I've said is perhaps just a generational passing sort of thing but the last 75 years have been about fighting for social change and improvement and if over half the country is more or less ignorant of the major things we went through and events of the time then we have some of the answers for why voter turnout for the under 40 crowd is tough. There are other reasons as well but I never expected that at my age and after all these years I would have people in their 20's and 30's having to ask "Who is this Bob Dylan guy people are talking about?" Yes I know that many young people are very involved and active etc. but my comments are mainly about how such major events of a generation can be so unknown to the next.
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