Difference between revisions of "328--Week 12 Questions/Comments"
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Perhaps one of the most striking pieces of Naomi's interview, for me at least, was when she talked about the protests of the Vietnam War. Perhaps this struck me because I have just spent millions of hours going through Bullet articles of the 1970s. Even though many people did not agree with the war, Naomi Craig included, not everyone protested. I always thought that a lack of political activism and expression was due to the lethargic nature of an American. It was interesting to read that Naomi's reasons instead came from her respect for fellow mothers. Something that has been evident in all of my reading for women's history on African Americans is this strong sense of community. Even though Naomi did not have a child at war, she supported the mothers who did. It must have been so incredibly tough to have a child serving overseas in a war you did not support. ~Juliann Boyles | Perhaps one of the most striking pieces of Naomi's interview, for me at least, was when she talked about the protests of the Vietnam War. Perhaps this struck me because I have just spent millions of hours going through Bullet articles of the 1970s. Even though many people did not agree with the war, Naomi Craig included, not everyone protested. I always thought that a lack of political activism and expression was due to the lethargic nature of an American. It was interesting to read that Naomi's reasons instead came from her respect for fellow mothers. Something that has been evident in all of my reading for women's history on African Americans is this strong sense of community. Even though Naomi did not have a child at war, she supported the mothers who did. It must have been so incredibly tough to have a child serving overseas in a war you did not support. ~Juliann Boyles | ||
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| + | Very interesting piece. As a white history major, maybe I'm biased, but I've always looked at Vietnam as a class war in terms of who was drafted and sent over, not that people were selected due to race. Unfortunately, because more whites could afford to go to college, it gives the appearance of being an unjust system for African-Americans. I've known a number of Vietnam vets over the years. The common thread is not their race, but the fact that most of the kids drafted were poor, and when they returned, as Mrs. Craig implied, they were treated with contempt and disdain as baby killers. Mrs. Craig's reminscences in regards to the assasination of Dr. King and the subsequent riots were poignant. I highly reccomend Dr. Crawley's post WWII history class in regard to this. I remember Dr. Crawley giving a vivid lecture regarding 1968. The events as they unfolded, with the assasination of Dr. King and Robert Kennedy less than two months apart, the nightly war footage, the riots, and the riots outside the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention all gave observors at that moment the idea that the world was falling apart, at least in the U.S. I think the title of that web page, "The Whole World is Watching," was lifted from the chants of protestors at the 1968 convention. That entire war in general was an experience that I believe scarred an entire generation. | ||
| + | Phil Novalski. | ||
