I am a child of the 50’s and 60’s,
raised in southern California by a single mother who struggled on a private
school teacher’s salary. She worked two jobs, and would still come up short if,
God forbid, anything unexpected happened. Getting help from government programs
was “going on the dole” as her generation put it. It was easy for me to rebel
against the establishment and not trust anyone over thirty.
I did what many of my generation
did: tune in, turn on and drop out. If Vietnam taught me the government was not
to be trusted, Watergate confirmed it. The first time I voted was in 1972 when
the initiative to legalize marijuana was on the ballot, and that’s why I voted.
That’s right, I was a hippy.
The lesson I learned was politics
was a nasty game, the Beltway corrupted anyone who spent any amount of time
there, and Big Oil was in control, then and now.
