North Carolina State University - Agromeck Yearbook (Raleigh, NC)

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The war in Southeast Asia became the largest area of protest. The sickness of this war aroused what will probably be remembered as the greatest era of dissent in the history of this country. This movement met with violence in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic National Convention when the Chicago police launched a massive violent attack on the protestors. This, coupled with the ineffectiveness of the anti-war presidential candidacy of Eugene McCarthy, caused great numbers of these young idealists to turn towards other means of achieving change. Many went underground and began to engineer the bombings of buildings associated with the war-machine, while others turned towards a spiritual revolution in the forms of Jesus movements and communal living. A great mass of young people had lost hope in the system. With the ratification of the twenty -sixth amendment in 1970, still more changes began to take place. Many who had advocated working outside of the system now began to urge others to organize voter registration drives in hopes that the new voters would join with the oppressed minorities and have a dramatic effect on the political system of this country. Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were among those urging young people to organize voter registration drives and to support the candidacy of George McGovern. For many, this election was the last hope of being able to acheive change by working within the system. They were giving the system one last chance, a chance to prove that this is a country which would elect a president who was not owned by the corporate structure, who was honest and straightforward about his convictions. The violence which had been so prevalent in the late 60 ' s and early 70 ' s dissappeared. Although many disagreed with George McGovern ' s views, he would nevertheless be a step towards the type of government which this country so desperately needed. It appeared as though George McGovern was going to receive the support of a wide majority of new voters. It was the enormous force of young people that won for him the D emocratic nomination. He was looked upon as a good and decent man, quite different from most politicians. But upon receiving the nomination, McGovern began to do and say things which tarnished his image in the eyes of many of his idealist supporters. Backing down on the abortion issue, his Thailand statement, and the handling of the Eagleton affair turned away many of his supporters and cost him a great deal of support among the new voters. Many young people felt that they had been used, just as Blacks were used by the Johnson administration in the 1964 election. Yet others stuck behind him and many who had temporarily turned away, came back. Richard M. Nixon was reelected to give the country four more years of racism, war, and corruption. The hopes that the youth vote would have a dramatic effect on the election had died. What will happen to those who were giving the system one last chance? Will more and more go underground and begin using more violent means of achieving change? Will others turn toward a spiritual or cultural type of revolution through religion and communal living, or will many continue to work within the system? The religious and communal movement will most likely continue to grow as more and more young people turn towards personal improvement. Those within the system will concentrate their effort in local and state elections since this is where they met with the most success. But there seems to be evidence that violence will again rise. Just following the election, two Black Brothers were murdered while protesting on a campus in Louisiana.