Ramirez on Woodstock

* Michael Ramirez’s cartoon, “You reap what you sow” (July 29), was so off the mark that I almost missed the obviousness of his message. Blaming the youth of the 1960s for the youth of the 1990s is an easy conservative stance that conveniently excludes three decades of radical change in American culture and industry. The original Woodstock’s relatively peaceful gathering was a far cry from the media-saturated, advertiser-bloated, $150-a-ticket monstrosity of its namesake. A gaggle of miscreants, in what was essentially an untroubled crowd, behaved violently, the media sensationalized the incidents and the “summer of love” got blamed; what tripe.

Ramirez should pay close attention to the fact that hundreds of large, youth-filled concerts take place across the U.S. every year with little or no fanfare. He should be reminded of the terrible violence that has recently taken place in rural and suburban Georgia, Arkansas and Colorado, hardly bastions of liberalism even in the past.

Ramirez should also accept that the youth of the 1960s were attempting to make substantive change in what had been a repressive and oppressive society.

ELISABETH GREENBAUM

Los Angeles

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* The cartoon by Ramirez showing two hippie parents with a child is just another cheap shot at the 1960s. The father wears a shirt bearing slogans, including the word “irresponsibility.” Such irresponsibility, the cartoon implies, led to the bad behavior of the younger generation at Woodstock 1999.

When I think of the 1960s generation, however, irresponsibility is the last thing that comes to mind. This is a generation that rode integrated buses into the Deep South at the risk of beatings and lynchings. This is the generation that endured tear gas, billy clubs and even death to stop a war that they believed was unjust. The 1960s generation believed that they were responsible for stopping injustice wherever they found it. They weren’t perfect. But thanks to the 1960s, our nation is more just and more free than ever before. And I, a child of the boomer generation, cherish the fruits of the struggle they so bravely fought.

JENNIFER ORFF

South Pasadena