Berkeley In The Sixties

Berkley in the sixties was a time of change, of wonder, revolution, art, music, and free- speech, among many other things. Important figures, such as Mario Savio, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Allen Ginsberg helped lead a movement that changed the history of our country for years to come. To fully dissect the situation of Berkeley in the sixties it will take observation of literary evidence and film footage. Although these pieces of footage are what is needed in present day to piece together the times during that era, it is safe to say that the activism still remains an important issue today.
The first issue you is the role of government in all the activism. To find a central understanding a more civil way could have come from their style of handling things. The government decided to use force, in which to succumb to the activists. The use of democracy could have been put to an honest effect in considerable fashion. Take the civil rights movement for example. The blacks were technically free, but oppressed. It is agreeable that everybody has the own rights, which includes refusing to sell to certain customers, but it’s human decency. If a law-abiding citizen comes into the store willing to purchase food, then they should have that right. Others did not think similarly. Dating back to the times of slavery, blacks were seen as savage people and less than an actual human. If a black American is allowed to attend school and succeed, then shouldn’t it be fair to allow them fair treatment throughout other characteristics of society?
A second issue is the role of the activists during the sixties. Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “We learned to swim the sea like fish, but we can’t learn to walk the earth as brothers and sister.” In other words, we learned as creatures to work together when forming as organisms, but now we can’t as different looking individuals. Ironic, that the civil rights movement, provided a political baptism with the hoses, which provided for public violence. Activists want to bring peace and equality into the sociopolitical order, but yet, students of Berkley feeling oppressed, surrounded a car a flipped it, on numerous occasions. Is this peaceful thinking? Does this spread equality? Activists are at fault for drawing, and inflicting, public violence to get there point across and the abolitionists from groups, such as the government and Operation Abolition should find a happier medium than striking these activists with high powered water hoses and splinter bound wooden Billy clubs. A simple form of peaceful thinking and discussion in a court room or something of a related matter settled this. Though it may take some extreme give from each wing. Both the left and the right wing, swallowing their pride, could have found a just equilibrium.