Now that summer is over, I reflect on the fact that the summer of 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of the summer of 1969, and what a summer that was! Mind you, I was only 4 at the time, so I don’t remember much from an adult point of view, but if I had been older then, I think I would have realized, and appreciated, what that moment meant. socially and historically. It was crazy if you look at it from my point of view and the things that interest me.
For example, Judy Garland died of an accidental overdose of Seconal barbiturates / sleeping pills on June 22. He was only 47 years old (2 years older than me now) and yet he made show business history in those short years in movies, radio, and concerts. , and television, and became arguably the greatest gay male icon of all time. His death was a lesson in what substances can mean to us. I work with clients all the time whose lives have been saved, improved, and are thriving thanks to the beneficial benefits of prescription drugs. However, Judy’s legacy is an example of how these drugs should always be treated with respect, even reverence, a drag that takes over our lives.
Plus, your life is an example: you don’t have to live long to make a lasting impression on the world. His death is rumored to have fueled the ire of gay men in the Stonewall riots, also in June 1969, which marks the ceremonial beginning of the modern gay rights movement (although gay historians really like to challenge this Poignant, and with good reason: Gay rights organizations existed in the 1950s, 1920s, and earlier). Sometimes a great loss like Judy’s can be an inspiration. Gay men broke down barriers during those nights of riots in New York City and paved the way for a more just, dignified, legitimate, respected and ordinary existence than ever. Bless those rock-throwing drag queens!
Perhaps the darkest events of an otherwise sunny summer were the two-night murders perpetrated by the young gang under the influence of the crazed Charles Manson. This event, narrated in the book Helter skelter , and others have not lost their ghoulish appeal in more than 40 years. The fact that a man, mad and evil as anyone has ever been, can “influence” others to literally commit murder on his behalf against innocent people (although he would not call them that), stuns the sane. Safe; everyone loves a hero. Groupies (especially younger women) have idolized “powerful” men “bad guys” for centuries. That they would kill for him shows that mind control is a very real and dangerous thing, and underscores why a healthy questioning of authority, be it towards Charles Manson or George W. Bush, is always a healthy thing. The Manson murders were also an example of the concept of “collective trauma.”
Native Angelenos (Los Angeles people) will often say that no one in Los Angeles was that “trusting” after those events. People closed their doors. They viewed others with suspicion. They lost some “innocence”. And the golden summers of Los Angeles would never be the same again. Perhaps not until September 11, 2001, would such a large group of Americans feel the collective pain caused by the self-indulgent and wicked acts of a small “well-intentioned” group with such shared trauma. This event showed us that while in general we might try to love our neighbor, we always have to reserve just a little “fight or flight” in the back of our minds to guard and protect us, that evil exists and that it strengthens the mind. With the capacity for objective critical thinking, it is a powerful tool that must be part of the emotional / intellectual / social development of each young person or woman, so that they are not left at the mercy of an influential madman.
The summer of 1969 also brought us the moon landing in July. I remember watching many hours (quite boring) watching our kind of dark TV screen, with terrible sound quality coming from the connection of the main networks to the moon capsule. It was difficult to see the dark, low-resolution images, but I knew because my entire family was gathered around the TV, including my visiting grandparents, that this was a momentous occasion. Back then, the most momentous occasion on television each year for me was the annual screening of “The Wizard of Oz” (see above; starring Judy Garland) (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product / B000Q66J1W / ref = cm_rdp_product). But as I grew older, I became more grateful to be “there to see” the moon landing “live” on television as part of my personal biography. It was boring and extraordinary at the same time.
I also have a great affinity for another event from the summer of 1969: the Woodstock Music Festival. I think to this day, watching the news coverage of that event has fueled my raging attraction to guys with long hair. Even then, I knew that the liberation, expression, and meaning of that festival meant a challenge to the status quo – status quos like racism, homophobia, sexism, and the general conservatism that I grew up with and have generally learned to avoid. every turn. Sure, drugs used for serious abuse are a problem, and I treat clients for these kinds of problems every day in my office (http://www.gaytherapyla.com/?page_id=25). I get it, but at the “innocence” of the Woodstock Festival, the drug use was less, I think, for the general meaning of what it means for a society to go from the Pisces era of black / white, right / wrong, winner / loser, to the real Aquarius Era of enlightened understanding and tolerance. Only 39 years later, when Proposition 8 was enacted into the California Constitution as the first time civil, legal, and equitable rights were taken away from an entire class of people (the right of adult gay / lesbian California citizens to marry), he certainly could have used some of the easygoing, joyful, celebratory, inclusive and loving spirit that Woodstock represented.
The summer of 1969 was also the year the Beatles began to seriously break up, and it marked the close of the 1960s and all that the decade represented. The 70s were his special time, and maybe I’ll reflect more on that later (that sparked my equally rabid devotion to guys with big sideburns, so I guess every decade has its aphrodisiac “masculine style” in my Universe). I think when we see how terribly conservative things got in the 80s, with the Cold War, “greed is good”, conspicuous consumption, the return of racism and homophobia (as if they really are), AIDS / HIV, and the hard turn to the right in the country under the leadership of the murderer Darth Vader (aka Ronald Wilson Reagan – 6-6-6), we would do well to remember the 60s and 70s, and the momentous summer of 1969, that meant a lot to many.
I feel that part of “Having the life you want” is living in gratitude and celebration of everything that surrounds us, in the present, no doubt, but also in our appreciation of our own life history, or the history before our lives. . it even started. Anniversaries help us notice this gratitude, savor it, and celebrate it. As the 40th anniversary of the summer of 1969 draws to a close, I’m doing all of that. Let the sun pass!