Southwestern Louisiana Institute - Lacadien Yearbook (Lafayette, LA)

Page 26 text:

1968-1978 MORE THAN TEN YEARS APART As the words A decade ago roll off one ' s lips, initially the period does seem iike a long time ago. For most of us 1968 was a time when we were removed from the main focus of major events that happened in the United States. Still many of the things that transpired then shaped the conscience of American culture. 1968 saw world- wide discontent and a unique impatience with the values most Americans held in high esteem. The waves for change were never so overt in our society. As though one could possibly forget. The civil rights movement was sharply active; two national leaders were assassinated; traditional conceptions about sex, drugs, and war were altered in a way few believed that they could ever be the same. The Chicago Democratic Convention remains a fiasco. We care not to think about it along with the multi-faceted embarrassment of the Vietnam War. Then, late in the year, reactionism began to set in as Richard Nixon was elected President of the United States. All this more or less brings us to where we are today. Civil rights have been dealt a bruised eye with the Supreme Court ruling in the Alan Bakke decision. Joining Affirmative Action in the that ' s another one against us category was the First Amendment. The high court limited freedom of the press by giving officers the right to search and seize in media rooms. ERA is in a desperate position as the deadline for approval draws closer, while three of 35 states have rescinded their ratification. If the riots and protests of 1 968 seem to be rampant and far-reaching, the Taxpayers ' Revolt of 1978 was much more so. Because of Proposition 13, the piece of legislation that started it all, many needed programs were butchered with those that wasted money. Glancing over dozens of yearbooks from the time, particularly the L ' Acadien, it would seem that nothing un- usual was going on in the late sixties. This time we would like to show a little of the state of the Union and the status of minds on campus. Few could argue that the U.S. is in an age of conservatism. 22 — Opening