1960S DIARY ENTRIES

1960s Diary Entries HIS/135 3/16/14

1960S DIARY ENTRIES

1960s Diary Entries

1-Dear Diary,

There is so much anger in this place and sometimes it feels as if that is all that exists anymore. The African American community is tired. They are frustrated. They are angry and rightfully so. We have been mistreated in a nation that claims that it is the freest nation in the world and we have been oppressed to the point to where we are not even treated as people. Many of us feel as if we are not and this makes us even angrier. We are people. We are human beings. We have feelings and we love our families just as every other person in our nation does and yet we are treated as secondary. Why is this? What is it about the color of our skin that makes us so different? People have different color eyes, how is this any different? Tonight I witnessed a man speak from his heart about the plight of not just the African American community but to us. He spoke from his heart to address us not as individuals but he spoke to us a nation. For the time that he spoke we were a united nation of all colors and peoples. We were not individuals but we were a country coming to terms with ourselves as we aged. It really did feel as if we were coming of age. This man took the rage and hopelessness that he felt in the air, (it was electric) and channeled that energy into something that we should have been doing all along. He made it into something positive. He spoke words about the hate that we are experiencing not with hate but with love. His approach was not to fight fire with fire but to resist that fire with a gentle passion that was felt by everyone in the audience. I hope

1960S DIARY ENTRIES Mr. King is right. I hope his approach is one that will be remembered because I hope that his approach is one that will work. You have a dream, Mr. King, and so do I. I hope that one day our dreams will become a reality. I hope that one day something as trivial as what color our skin is will not be something of consequence for the better or for the worse. I have a dream also, Mr. King, and I hope it comes true. 2-Dear Diary, I have been called many things in my life and to my shame many of them are true. I made a decision recently that has greatly impacted the lives of my family, my friends, my country, and myself. And because of it I have been labeled a coward. Am I coward? Or am I rebelling against something that I do not believe in? Is this now what our forefathers did when they were being oppressed by a British government? Did they not leave and decide to go out for themselves when that King was choosing to behave in a manner that they did not feel was justified? Were they cowards? No And yet I have been told that I am.

I refuse to fight in a war that serves no purpose simply because those who have power within our establishment tells me that is it needed. Why is it needed? Why must we travel across the world to fight, kill, and or die, for a cause that I do not believe in? Are we fighting communism? If so, why? Were we not a nation founded on independence and the freedom to live your life how you choose so long as you dont force that lifestyle on others? Is that not exactly what we are doing in Vietnam?

1960S DIARY ENTRIES LBJ I refuse to fight your war because you are a power hungry fascist. I refuse to travel to Vietnam to die or to murder because you feel you need to make a statement about the dominance of our country. Our country was not founded on dominating it was founding on independence and freedom. That means we have freedom and other nations have freedom. Freedom to do as they please so long as they dont try to force change on anyone else and I like that perspective. I want freedom but I also want other people to have it even if their freedom and choice does not exactly correlate with my own views. That is true freedom. I have been called a coward because I chose to not fight in a war that I did not believe in and left our country to go to Canada. I made a decision to choose to not murder for an unjust cause. If that makes me a coward then I am going to be the most loving coward I can be.

1960S DIARY ENTRIES

References

NA (2013). The Assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Retrieved from http://www.socialistappeal.org/analysis/racism/186-the-assassinations-ofmartin-luther-king-jr-and-malcolm-x NA (2013). Kent state. Retrieved from http://www.kentstate1970.org/timeline/may4th1970