1969 Stories & Essays
1969 was a pivotal year for the USA. For the nation it was a time of remarkable achievement, civil unrest, and moral confusion. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. It marked the high-water year of an escalating and undeclared war. The NY Mets won the World Series. Woodstock happened. And, for this writer/poet, it was the beginning of my senior year.
I grew up in the heartland of the country, just another kid from the industrial city of Akron, Ohio. My hometown was a few miles down the road from KSU (Kent State University) and the small city of Kent. My Dad, a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War, wanted Vietnam to end, but with honor. My mother agreed. I graduated from high school in early June, 1970, just weeks after the shootings at KSU by members of the Ohio National Guard. In the aftermath, home was like living inside a broken mirror, the pieces still held together by the wooden frame. It was fertile ground for my coming of age story; one that would take decades to write.
On the fifty-year anniversary of 1969 I joined together with seven other veteran writers…journalists, freelance writers, and social and political commentators…to add my story as part of a diverse collection of eyewitness accounts, personal tales, and uncommon confessions commemorating that historic year. The book is entitled: Are you Still Listening? 1969 Stories and Essays. Companion authors and witnesses to that transformative decade were: Brent Green, Carol Orsborn, Ph.D., David Cogswell, Bob Moses, Jed Diamond, Ph.D., Greg Dobbs, and Richard Adler.
For those who experienced 1969 firsthand, this book can stir memories and invite reflection about a momentous year. For those who were born after, the book reveals truths concerning a rebellious time and an engaged generation that believed it might change the world.
Many touch points from that decade seem to be cycling back with intensity into the present day. The Beatles gave their final public performance on the rooftop of Apple Records in London in 1969. May 2020 offers this nation and the world another bite at the apple in terms of resolving those issues this time around.
