When I was a junior in High School I took a course in Public Speaking. This was a year-long class from the fall of 1968 to the spring of 1969. My high school was located thirty miles north of San Francisco. The region had been a hotbed of unrest on college campuses since the mid 60s.
In 1969 the Lions Club sponsored a speech contest. The speech topic was The Hopes and Fears of Youth Today. My public speaking teacher had the students in the two periods she taught each write a speech for the contest. Out of probably forty speeches mine was one that was presented at the contest.
The winner at our level was a senior from the afternoon class. His theme was, “Help Wanted.” It was a thoughtful speech about different opportunities young people might have over the course of their life.
My speech started, “There will never be world peace. It is much easier to hate than to love. It is more fun to get than to give. This is something some members of ‘My Generation’ fail to understand. They are the idealists in a world where only the realists will survive.”
Fortunately, the rest of the speeches were not ranked. The judge for the competition was a young male professor from San Francisco State College with a ponytail. Neatly dressed but more likely to be aligned with the more liberal idealists who were protesting many things in those days.
The Decade of the Sixties
The Sixties were an interesting time to come of age.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the first oral contraceptive in 1960. Within 2 years of its initial distribution, 1.2 million American women were using the birth control pill, or “the pill,” as it is popularly known.
In 1961, John F. Kennedy became the President of the United States. Several months later he promised to put a man on the moon and bring him home safely by the end of the decade.
The war in Vietnam had been waging for many years. At that time the United States involvement was providing advisors to the South Vietnamese army.
October 8, 1961, Fr. Patrick Peyton’s Rosary Crusade drew an estimated 500,000 people to the polo field in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
October 11, 1962, The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican began.
From October 16 – 28, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States came close to nuclear war.
On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
The civil rights movement, which had begun in the 1950s, was growing. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964.
December 8, 1965, The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican ended.
By 1968 the United States involvement in the war in Vietnam had grown. So had the antiwar protests. President Lyndon Johnson decided not to seek reelection.
Civil Rights leader and activist Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
On June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was shot. He died the following day.
On July 20, 1969, the first moon landing occurred. Two men landed and returned safely.
When I look back at this time, from the age of seven to seventeen, I hear this in my mind:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Looking Back
Looking at the events of the 1960s listed above I am amazed at the dichotomy of events that happened. There certainly were several truly good things that happened. There were many more truly evil things that happened.
Vatican II, as it is commonly called, was a momentous event in the history of the Church. There were some hiccups along the way in implementing the documents that came from the council. It took until the pontificate of John Paul II to clarify many issues, either through writings of John Paul II or the new Catechism of the Catholic Church. In terms of God’s time it was no time at all.
What I also find truly remarkable is the fact that three of the four popes who have died since the council started have been canonized. Pope John Paul I, who was only pope for thirty-three days, has been beatified.
The fact that the Rosary Crusade drew 500,000 people, of whom I was one at age nine with my parents, with no place to park and no public transportation available to the thousands like my family who came from areas outside of San Francisco, appears to be nothing short of a miracle. In 1960 the population of San Francisco was only about 740,000.
Looking at the decade as a whole it would appear people of faith started out strong but in the end, evil triumphed.
Idealist vs Dreamer
To me, the idealists of my youth, many of whom are still around today, believe man can create a perfect world through his own efforts. There is no place for God in the world of the idealist.
To me, realists recognize the world is fallen. Man’s nature is fallen. Without God, man can do nothing.
I believe there are also ones we can call “Dreamers.” I think dreamers are generally realists. They see things that can be. They can aspire to those things realizing that to attain them requires God’s help.
Robert Kennedy, when he was running for president in 1968, gave a talk at the University of Kansas on March 18. Bobby talked about many problems facing the country then. While the specifics may be different today, the problems still exist.
He made this point toward the end of his talk:
George Bernard Shaw once wrote, “Some people see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say, why not?”
Bobby’s dreams died three months later.
The reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister. He marched for civil rights and demonstrated peacefully. He was arrested and persecuted for exercising his rights. He was a dreamer.
On August 28, 1963, Dr. King, delivered a speech to thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, who had marched on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He gave the speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to people standing around the reflecting pool stretching between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. It is referred to as the I Have a Dream speech.
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
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I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
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I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning: My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims’ pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.
//
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.
Dr. King was a dreamer whose dreams included God; not excluded God.
What are my hopes and fears today?
Today it is important to remember evil did not triumph in the decade of the 60s. It may have appeared that way but that is how the evil one operates. He is the father of lies. He wants to disturb our peace. He wants us to believe God has failed us and we are left with having to rely on our own abilities. He wants us to despair.
As a realist I know evil has not triumphed. I know Christ has already triumphed over evil. We have been saved. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world:
Jesus answered, “My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world.” (John 18:36)
I don’t have fears. I have concerns that I share with God. I share the yoke Christ offers so He can help me carry my concerns.
I have many hopes. They are not wishes. They are truths I believe because I know, and have a friendship with, the One who gave them to me. They include:
The hope that if I am in the state of grace when I die I will go to heaven;
I cannot do anything on my own. Whatever I do I need God’s help;
I am my brother’s keeper;
Loving one another as God has loved me is not a suggestion. It is a commandment;
The most important thing I can do is to do God’s will whatever it may be;
This world will come to an end; I do not know when but I know it will happen;
I may have to suffer. I pray I will be spared from suffering. I pray also, if it is God’s will that I suffer, He will give me the grace to endure that suffering and I will never seek relief that is not in accordance with His will. I pray He will use my suffering to relieve the suffering of someone else;
I must pray. I need to pray for myself. I need to pray for my family. I need to pray for my friends. I need to pray for my enemies. I need to pray for the whole world;
I have to seek forgiveness for my sins. I need to forgive those who have sinned against me;
I need to consume the Bread of Life if I want to have life.
I have many more hopes not listed here.
We all need to pray for God to be with us, and for us, and to do God’s will. We need to share our hopes with others.
We need to be Beacons of Hope, shining the light of God onto others by how we live our lives.
And one of the most important things we need to remember:
September 10, 2024
© 2024 Greg Gillen
Scripture/Revised Standard Version 2nd Catholic Edition
Image Credit/alattehope.com/how-to-become-a-beacon-of-hope/
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities/www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2956372
Robert F. Kennedy–George Bernard Shaw Quote/www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/the-kennedy-family/robert-f-kennedy/robert-f-kennedy-speeches/remarks-at-the-university-of-kansas-march-18-1968
I Have a Dream/www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety
Rosary Crusade/www.sfgate.com/bayarea/place/article/Rosary-gathering-in-SF-draws-dedicated-faithful-2326775.php
Cuban Missile Crisis/history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/cuban-missile-crisis
Population of San Francisco/pubs.usgs.gov/bul/b2188/b2188ch9.pdf
The Pill/journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/history-oral-contraception/2000-06
Be not afraid/www.ncregister.com/blog/43-years-ago-and-today-john-paul-ii-urges-us-be-not-afraid
Image Credit/Be not afraid!/mariellahunt.com/2020/12/18/waiting-at-the-manger/
