Mass production of penicillin and streptomycin also reached record highs and
electricity was generated from nuclear power for the first time.
1952 books of note included The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemmingway; East of
Eden, John Steinbeck; The Grass Harp, Truman Capote; and The Power of Positive
Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale.
In 1953 James Watson and Francis Crick determined the structure of DNA and the
sales of comic books skyrocketed to 20 million copies a month. The phrase "under
God" was also added to the Pledge.
Two years later Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. lead the first major event of the
U.S. civil rights movement and Albert Einstein died. Rudolph Flesch also
published Why Johnny Can't Read, a stinging criticism of the U.S. educational
system.
By 1956 we early boomers were celebrating our tenth birthday, only to bear
witness to even more remarkable events: Nikita Khrushchev warned, 'We will bury
you!' Then the Russians launched Sputnik I and II at the same time that re-
elected President Eisenhower sent the first troops into Arkansas to enforce
desegregation. 'Barbie' was born during those years (sigh). Castro took over
Cuba. And Chubby Checker introduced us to the TWIST as the Soviets shot down a US
spy plane. President Kennedy took office in 1960 as the Berlin wall went up.
In 1962 the first Wal-Mart opened and Russian warheads brought the world to the
brink of another war. President Kennedy was assassinated.
At the same time that Martin Luther King declared, "I have a dream," President
Johnson declared his own 'war on poverty' and shortly thereafter he began
planning a huge escalation of a war that ushered us into the controversial
Vietnam era.
The Beatles invaded the US and huge civil disturbances ensued over the Vietnam
War and race and President's Johnson's so-called 'Great Society.' King and Bobby
Kennedy were assassinated; President Johnson pulled out of the Presidential race
and Nixon won. In 1969 the US landed its first man on the moon.
By that time most of us boomers were nearly middle aged and we had suffered
through Kent State, the Beatles breakup, the Pentagon papers, Nikon's visit to
China and his ill-fated re-election which ended in Watergate - followed in short
order by the Court's legalization of abortion and the end of the military draft.
In 1975 'JAWS' scared the living daylights out of us.
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The '60s remain too vibrant a memory to be erased for those of us who experienced
them. And it has left an indelible mark on us.
The political landscape is surely going to be changed by the aging of the baby
boomers, the generation that has persistently challenged conventional behavior
patterns. A significant number of us backed movements such as anti-racism,
women's liberation and environmentalism, and we were in the vanguard of the
sexual revolution. We also had a healthy disrespect for authority and
conservative values.
Unlike previous generations before us, however, we will not respond as placidly
as our parents and grandparents did to being sidelined after retirement into
possible poverty and a sense of powerlessness. We boomers plan to grow older very
differently from our parents and, because of our sheer numbers, we have the
potential to rewrite this country's political agenda.
Will we move into a new phase of radicalism, pushing for wider social change? You
bet we will! We already are. And we speak with a wisdom all our own.
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