The Real Impact of the ‘60s

Letter writer Earl Hutchinson displays a very myopic view of his beloved 1960s (Letters in View, March 27). True, there were marches and demonstrations to oppose poverty, racism, war, etc.--all of them, issues that have been around for thousands of years. The ‘60s added only one more row of bricks to policies that people have been trying to build for generations.

To really understand the full impact of the ‘60s, you need only look about. Throughout the world there is still war, racism, starvation and oppression. Too many of the ‘60s generation are so busy patting themselves on the backs for having discovered virtue that they’ve failed to notice they didn’t accomplish all that much--how incomplete their impact truly was.

I quote from Hutchinson’s letter, “demanding an end to poverty and racism . . . and senseless killing . . . the cause of peace and social justice was worth the fight. . . .”

Yes, it always was and still is, because while there has been improvement, the ‘60s generation did not get rid of all the world’s evils. As the ‘60s fade away, the battles will continue. Throughout recorded history there have always been marches, demonstrations, people killed and jailed in their efforts to fight for precisely the same causes, and it will go on for a long time to come.

The ‘60s generation simply stood on the shoulders of history, and others will stand on theirs.

MARY HARTT

Los Angeles